Thorvald Stoltenberg

Thorvald Stoltenberg (born July 8, 1931) is a prominent Norwegian politician. He served as Minister of Defense (1979-81) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1987-1989 and 1990-1993) in two Labour governments.

From 1989 to 1990 he was appointed Norwegian Ambassador to the UN. In 1990 he became the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and was in 1993 appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and UN Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia.

In 2003 he was Chairman of the Board of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Since 1998 he is President of the Norwegian Red Cross. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, and holds a seat on their Executive Committee.

His son, Jens Stoltenberg, followed him into politics and is, since October 2005, serving his second term as Prime Minister of Norway.

Youth

In his youth Stoltenberg became heavily involved in the organization of Hungarian refugees fleeing the invading Soviet Army in 1956. In one particular situation, evacuating refugees by boat in the middle of the night, he jumped into the strong currents, risking his own life to save one of the boats. One of the other rescuers, future famous American journalist Barry Farber called this the greatest act of courage he has ever seen in his life. Stoltenberg himself kept the story a secret, until Farber in December 2006 revealed it on the Norwegian talk-show "Først & sist".