Ambassador Brattskar and Sons of Norway CEO Eivind Heiberg. Photo by Becca Dilly
This week, Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar visited Minneapolis for a series of events. He spoke about Norway’s foreign policy at The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church, visited Sons of Norway headquarters, and was the guest speaker at the Syttende Mai Minnesota Banquet.
Brattskar was recently named Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. He’s the Special Advisor for Indigenous Peoples Issues at the United Nations Development Program. He’s also Special Adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
For more than 30 years, Ambassador Brattskar’s diplomatic career has taken him around the world. Prior to his position with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as Norway’s ambassador to Kenya and Sri Lanka and has been posted to embassies in Washington, D.C. and Malaysia. In New York, he was the Minister Counselor and Head of the Political Section at the Norwegian Mission to the United Nations.
“Foreign service has been a very exciting, interesting and rewarding place to work,” he says. “It has brought my family and me to many parts of the world.”
Passionate about the environment and deforestation, Brattskar was the first Director of the Government of Norway’s Climate and Forest Initiative. Learn more about the Ambassador in Viking magazine’s September issue, where he will reflect on his diplomatic career, Norway’s foreign policy priorities and his new role with the United Nations in Geneva.