Børge Brende

Børge Brende (born 25 September 1965) is a Norwegian politician from the Conservative Party and has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 16 October 2013. He served as Minister of the Environment 2001–2004 and as Minister of Trade and Industry 2004–2005, and as a member of the Storting 1997–2009.

Brende served as chairman of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development from 2003 to 2004. In 2005, he took up the appointment of international vice chairman of the China Council for the International Cooperation on Environment and Development (advisory board to the State Council).

In January 2008, Brende joined the World Economic Forum as managing director, particularly in charge of relations with governments and civil society. In 2009, Brende joined the Norwegian Red Cross as Secretary General. He re-joined the World Economic Forum in 2011 as Managing Director with responsibility for policy initiatives and engagement of the Forum's non-business constituents.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2013–present

In October 2014, Brende – in his capacity as Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) – co-hosted the Cairo Conference on Palestine, an international donor conference on reconstructing the Gaza Strip, which garnered $5.4 billion in pledges.

In 2015, Brende negotiated an interim agreement between Norway and the other coastal states in the Arctic – Canada, Denmark (on behalf of its territory of Greenland), Russia and the United States – on prohibiting commercial fishing in the increasingly ice-free international waters of the Arctic.

In January 2016, Brende was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the High-level Advisory Group for Every Woman Every Child.

Brende is married and has two sons.