14.01.2014 |

Berlin - Today in Berlin, Minister Gerd Müller met with the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Børge Brende, who is also in charge of Norway's extensive de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion activities.

Their talks focused on defining a new global system of goals for the period after 2015, when the Millennium De­vel­op­ment Goals expire. Commenting on their talks, Dr Gerd Müller said: "Like Norway, we believe that the new system of goals will be the compass for future in­ter­national co­op­er­a­tion. The in­ter­national com­mu­ni­ty must tackle the great global challenges of the next few decades - eradicating pov­er­ty and hunger and ensuring sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment on our planet - through a joint approach."

Both Ministers emphasised that they would continue the close and friendly exchange on global issues and intensify their co­op­er­a­tion in the future. This includes the areas of food security, energy, climate protection, health and education. Both coun­tries are, for example, active in the health sector of Malawi within the German-Norwegian initiative to promote maternal and newborn health.

The Norwegian gov­ern­ment, led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, has been in office for three months. During her first official trip abroad, which took her to Germany in November 2013, she visited Chancellor Angela Merkel. In that meeting, too, joint de­vel­op­ment policy projects of both coun­tries were discussed.

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