China contacts never stopped despite Nobel row, Norway says

Norweigian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said that contacts between Oslo and Beijing never stopped despite a row over a Chinese dissident winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

The comments came a day after Stoltenberg met with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe summit in Laos, a meeting that was reported as the countries’ first official contact since the Nobel dispute.

But on Tuesday, Stoltenberg said contacts with Beijing never stopped.

“I’ve spoken on occasion with the Chinese president and on different occasions with the deputy finance minister,” he told the Norwegian NTB agency late on Monday.

Relations between Norway and China cooled between the two countries after the pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo, whom Beijing considers a “criminal”, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel committee, which is independent of the government though its members are chosen by the Norwegian parliament, angered China.