Tore Onshuus Sandvik (born 31 August 1969) is a Norwegian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. Between 2003 and 2023, he served as the

Chairman of the County Council The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag (; ) was a Counties of Norway, county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag () county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. ...

until 2018, and

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

until 2023. Since 2025, he has served as Norway's

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Political career

Youth league

As a young adult, Sandvik served as the County Youth Secretary in the

Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (, LO) is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have almo ...

and later Vice President of ETUC Youth.

State Secretary

In 2001 he was appointed State Secretary of the

Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry () was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. It was first created in 1916, as the Ministry of Trade (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Shipping and Industry). It ...

. He was re-appointed in November 2023 following his departure as chairman of the county council.

Chairman of the Trøndelag County Council

Before he was elected County Mayor in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

he also worked as a project director for Extend. He was reelected in the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

elections. When Nord and Sør-Trøndelag merged in 2018, he continued as county mayor for the new county before winning another term in the 2019 local elections. In 2022, Sandvik announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2023 local elections. The Trøndelag Labour Party chose Per Olav Skurdal Hopsø as their candidate for county mayor. After the 2023 local elections, Labour's coalition partner the Centre Party joined the conservative block in order to get the county mayor position, thereby putting an end to Sandvik's term. He was succeeded by Tomas Iver Hallem on 18 October 2023.

Acting Minister of Climate and the Environment

Between 23 August and 31 December 2024, he served as acting minister of climate and the environment when Andreas Bjelland Eriksen went on paternal leave.

Tenure

In early October, the government announced that they wouldn't be able to hand in their planned climate goals for 2035 by January 2025 to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

as originally planned. Sandvik stated that they were looking for inputs on what the new goals should be. On 22 October, it was announced that Sandvik would be tasked with leading the negotiations regarding financing of the biodiversity framework at the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

, Colombia. Sandvik was part of the Norwegian delegation at

COP29 The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly known as COP29, was the 29th United Nations Climate Change conference. It was held at Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 ...

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

and led negotiations at the conference concerning emissions cuts together with his South African counterpart, Dion George. By the end of the conference, he expressed that the countries had reached a solution and explained that Norway would be contributing with 3000 billion NOK in annual funding until 2035. He also remarked that the 1.5 degree target could have had a better outcome.

Minister of Defence

Following the Centre Party's withdrawal from government, he was appointed minister of defence on 4 February 2025.

Tenure

A week after his appointment, Sandvik attended a NATO summit in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

where he met with

US Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (acronym: SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclos ...

Pete Hegseth Peter Brian Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is an American author, former television presenter, and former Army National Guard officer who has served as the 29th United States secretary of defense since 2025. Hegseth studied politics at Princeton ...

and attended a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group alongside representatives of the 31 other

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 ...

member states and 25 other countries. Sandvik further reiterated Norway's support for Ukraine. In late March, sources told ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' that a prominent female member of the Labour Party had filed a complaint against Sandvik and had later sent it directly to prime minister Støre following supposed poor handling of the complaint from the party secretary and leadership. The complaint details an alleged punishable offence perpetrated by Sandvik against the woman fifteen years ago during a trip to

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, with two further women present during the trip, corroborating the experience. After being criticised for not informing about the delays of a maritime army project in Ramsund in Southern

Troms Troms (; ; ; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. It borders Finnmark county to the northeast and Nordland county in the southwest. Norrbotten Län in Sweden is located to the south and further southeast is a shorter border with ...

, Sandvik acknowledged in mid May that the government hadn't properly informed parliament about the recent delay of the project until 2026. During a NATO defence ministers' summit in early June, Sandvik signed a defence deal with his Danish counterpart

Troels Lund Poulsen Troels Lund Poulsen (born 30 March 1976) is a Danish politician, who is the Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark and leader of . He also serves as Minister of Defence. He previously served as Minister for the Environment from 2007 to 2010, Minist ...

, which aims to strengthen the two countries' strategic and operative cooperation when it comes to training of personnel, operations and maintenance.

Personal life

Sandvik grew up in the borough of Kolstad in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

. He is married to Trine Brænden and has four children, two of whom are from a previous relationship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandvik, Tore Onshuus 1969 births Living people Politicians from Trondheim Norwegian state secretaries Labour Party (Norway) politicians Sør-Trøndelag politicians Chairpersons of County Councils of Norway Ministers of defence of Norway