Norway funds Oslo Forum 2026, foreign ministry withholds guest list, taxpayers cover NOK 20mn

• Nettavisen reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is allocating NOK 20 million to Oslo Forum 2026 at Losby Gods.
• The participant list is being kept secret despite full public financing.
• The arrangement raises a basic procurement question: what public output justifies the cost and the secrecy.
• A comparison with other state-funded diplomatic events would show whether this level of opacity is routine or exceptional.

Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spend NOK 20 million on Oslo Forum 2026 at Losby Gods, a manor hotel east of Oslo, while keeping the participant list secret. Nettavisen reports that the ministry is inviting guests to the meeting but will not disclose who they are.

That leaves the public with a precise price tag and a vague product. Oslo Forum has long marketed itself as a discreet arena for conflict mediation and back-channel diplomacy, where ministers, envoys, mediators and armed-conflict negotiators can speak without cameras or formal communiqués. Secrecy is part of the sales pitch. The difficulty is that discretion in diplomacy and secrecy in public spending are not the same thing. When the state pays, the ordinary questions follow: how many participants are invited, what criteria govern access, what outcomes are expected, and what measurable public benefit justifies NOK 20 million for a closed gathering at a country estate.

The setting matters because it says something about the event’s function. Losby Gods is not a ministry conference room or a parliamentary hearing; it is a private venue built for retreat, distance and controlled access. That may be useful for sensitive talks. It also shields the event from the scrutiny that usually accompanies taxpayer-funded conferences, where agendas, speakers and attendance lists are standard public information. If the ministry wants the public to accept that this is ordinary diplomatic practice, it will need to show how Oslo Forum compares with other state-funded meetings in Norway and abroad: what they cost, how much of the program is closed, and whether guest lists are routinely withheld.

The sum is large enough to make those comparisons unavoidable. NOK 20 million is not a symbolic contribution to a policy seminar. It is the kind of allocation that would normally come with procurement details, deliverables and a clear explanation of why this event, at this venue, with this level of confidentiality, is the best use of public money. A closed diplomatic forum may produce useful contacts and conversations that cannot be livestreamed. It can also become a publicly funded private club whose value is asserted rather than demonstrated.

For now, the ministry has disclosed the venue and the bill. The names of the people walking through the doors at Losby Gods remain secret.

Källor: Nettavisen