Anne-Grete Hjelle Strøm-Erichsen (born 21 October 1949 in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She served as minister of defence from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2012 to 2013. She also served as minister of health and care services from 2009 to 2012. In local politics, she served as the mayor of Bergen from 1999 to 2000 and its first chief commissioner from 2000 to 2003.

Education and early career

Strøm-Erichsen was educated in EDB engineering at

Bergen University College Western Norway University of Applied Sciences () or HVL is a Norwegian public institution of higher education, established in January 2017 through the merging of formerly independent colleges across five campuses: Bergen, Førde, Haugesund, Sog ...

in 1974. She then studied at the

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (South Dakota Mines, SD Mines, or SDSM&T) is a public university in Rapid City, South Dakota. It is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and was founded in 1885. South Dakota Mines offers b ...

in the United States until 1981 and worked with the EDB systems at the University of Bergen until 1984. She was later senior consultant in

Siemens Nixdorf Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG was formed in 1990 by the merger of Nixdorf Computer and the Data Information Services (DIS) division of Siemens. It functioned as a separate company within Siemens. It was the largest information te ...

from 1988 to 1991 and BDC AS from 1991 to 1995.

Political career

Local politics

Strøm-Erichsen was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

from 1999 to 2000 and chaired its city council from 2000 to 2003. Being mayor, she was the president of the

Organization of World Heritage Cities The Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization of 250 cities in which sites of the UNESCO World Heritage list are located. It was founded in 1993 in Fez, Morocco, during the second In ...

from 1999 to 2001. She also chaired the county party chapter from 1997 to 1999, and was a member of the Labour Party central committee from 2002 to 2007.

First term as Minister of Defence

She was elected to the Storting from Hordaland in the 2005 election. On 17 October 2005, she was appointed minister of defence in the Red-Green Coalition

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

headed by

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. Since 2025, he has been the Minister of Finance in the Støre Cabinet. He has previously been the prime minister of Norway and secretary general of NATO. ...

. Her seat in parliament was taken by

Dag Ole Teigen Dag Ole Teigen (born 10 August 1982 in Volda) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party (AP). He represented Hordaland in the Norwegian Parliament, where he met from 2005 to 2009 in the place of Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen, who was appointe ...

. In September 2007, Strøm-Erichsen expressed that Norwegian special forces in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

could have killed ''hostile elements'', further adding that there was reason to believe that they had, and it was "not something we hide". In April 2008, Strøm-Erichsen received tenders from the aircraft manufacturers

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab AB, a Swedish aircraft, aerospace and defence company, still known as SAAB, and together with subsidiaries as Saab Group ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab ...

and

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

to deliver the new fighter jets to the

Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) () is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted ...

. The respective manufacturers' aircraft were presented by the U.S Ambassador to Norway Benson K. Whitney and Swedish Defence Minister

Sten Tolgfors Sten Sture Tolgfors (born 17 July 1966) is a Swedish former politician, public affairs executive and government official who is serving as Governor of Västra Götaland County since 1 September 2022, having been appointed to the position on 9 ...

respectively. Strøm-Erichsen described it as a difficult decision to make, as the two aircraft represent different military operational qualities with different industrial agreements at the bottom. In February 2009, Strøm-Erichsen stated that Norway had participated strongly with special forces in Afghanistan, notably with 600 soldiers and 750

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...

a year, in response to the US's indication to pressure

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

allies to send more soldiers.

Minister of Health and Care Services

After the 2009 election, she was appointed

minister of health and care services The Minister of Health and Care Services () is a Council of State (Norway), councilor of state and chief of the Norway's Ministry of Health and Care Services (Norway), Ministry of Health and Care Services. Since 19 April 2024 the position has been ...

. In 2010 she and

Jonas Gahr Støre Jonas Gahr Støre (; born 25 August 1960) is a Norwegian politician who has served as the prime minister of Norway since 2021. He has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2014. He served under Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as Minister of ...

, minister of foreign affairs, involved in a scandal due to their acceptance of expensive gifts such as carpets from Afghan politicians.

Second term as Minister of Defence

Following a cabinet reshuffle on 21 September 2012, she was reappointed as minister of defence succeeding

Espen Barth Eide Espen Barth Eide (born 1 May 1964) is a Norwegian politician and political scientist. He is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jonas Gahr Støre's government, having previously done so under Jens Stoltenberg. He has been ...

, who had been appointed minister of foreign affairs. In February 2013, she moderated her standing on whether or not Sweden could receive military assistance if they were attacked. She expressed that it was something she could not promise. Prior to that, she had attended a NATO summit with fellow ministers of defence, and later visited

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. Following the Ministry of Defence's evaluation that

Chief of Defence A chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked Officer (armed forces), commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national ...

Harald Sunde was not incompetent when he appointed Karl Egil Hanevik as chief of the special forces, Strøm-Erichsen said she would take note of the ministry's legal assessment. The case had been revealed by '' VG'' the day before, that Sunde had a personal connection to Hanevik by being his fiancé at his wedding and the two also were sponsors of each other's children. In June, she presented new responses to the Storting

Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs The Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs () is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It holds a supervisory role in relation to the proceedings of the parliament and public sector. The committee has 12 members and i ...

regarding critical emails from the Navy Command. She took this action after being criticised for not taking claims of lying, manipulation and threats of surveillance from the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army () is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The ...

's top level in connection with the proposal to move the Marine Hunter Command from Ramsund and Bergen to Rena. In the summer of 2013, under her leadership, the Storting decided to introduce gender-neutral conscription in the Norwegian Armed Forces, which was introduced in 2015 under her successor, Ine Eriksen Søreide's leadership. She did not seek reelection in the 2013 election.Kjetil Løset
Sp-topp trekker seg fra Stortinget
(in Norwegian) TV2, 25 June 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strom-Erichsen, Anne-Grete 1949 births Living people Ministers of health and care services of Norway Labour Party (Norway) politicians Mayors of Bergen Female defence ministers Bergen University College alumni Women mayors of places in Norway Norwegian Christians Women members of the Storting 20th-century Norwegian women politicians 20th-century Norwegian politicians 21st-century Norwegian women politicians Women government ministers of Norway People educated at Langhaugen Upper Secondary School Ministers of defence of Norway Members of the Storting 2005–2009 Members of the Storting 2009–2013