Norway’s crown prince visited Seattle on Wednesday to talk about how his country and Washington can collaborate on opportunities in green transition and decarbonization.
At a conference at the National Nordic Museum in Ballard, Crown Prince Haakon met with representatives from the state, local tech companies and the University of Washington.
Other Norwegian officials — including Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre, Minister for Digitalisation and Public Governance Karianne Tung and Norwegian State Secretary of Fisheries and Ocean Policy Kristina Sigurdsdottir Hansen — accompanied the prince to Seattle.
Members of Norway’s business delegation also visited Amazon and Microsoft, where they talked about topics such as generative AI.
As part of his American trip, the prince visited San Francisco earlier this week, where he discussed cooperation on the shift to clean energy, artificial intelligence and the promotion of Norwegian technology and business with California leaders.
Seattle has a rich history tied to Nordic nations. When immigrants from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland moved to the United States, their logging, mining and fishing skills brought them to Seattle — and Ballard in particular. The neighborhood is home to many Scandinavian immigrants and the National Nordic Museum.
In 2015, Crown Prince Haakon’s father, King Harald V, visited Seattle and said it was easy to understand why so many Norwegian immigrants chose the area as their new home, “with the backdrop of hills and mountains and the closeness to the ocean, it looks very much like parts of Norway.”
“I also know that you are no strangers to wet weather,” he added.
In other past royal visits, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf came to the Emerald City in 1976, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Seattle in March 1983.
