Zarif leaves for Norway to attend Oslo Forum

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has left the country for Norway to attend the Oslo Forum, which gathers leading armed conflict mediation practitioners.

According to Press TV, the FM boarded the plane for the Norwegian capital on Monday. He is joining the event at the host country’s invitation.

Zarif will stay in Norway for two days, during which he will give an address to the Forum and hold talks with other attendees and Norwegian authorities on bilateral ties and regional and international affairs.

This year’s summit is to be held under the rubric, “Peace Making in the New Era of Geopolitics.”

The Forum’s upcoming edition is expected to gather the European Union’s foreign policy director Federica Mogherini, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, former UN chief Kofi Annan, former US secretary of state John Kerry, and the  foreign ministers of Kenya, Indonesia, Sudan, Jordan, Bosnia, Finland, and Croatia, among others.

Zarif attended the event’s last year edition, too, speaking on its sidelines with various officials, including Mogherini.

The Forum started in 2003, gathering only 17 nations. However, it now invites representatives from around 100 countries each year to participate in discussions on international affairs.

SS