Ambassador Øystein Bø has extensive diplomatic and security policy experience. He assumed his duties
as Ambassador of Norway to Poland in late August 2023. He was Norway’s Ambassador/Permanent
representative to NATO from 2018 to 2022 and Deputy Permanent Representative from 2006 to 2010.
After returning from Brussels in 2022, he was appointed Special Representative for Nordic and Baltic
Security Policy, with a main focus on supporting Finland and Sweden on their path towards NATOmembership. In the spring of 2023, he was Head of the Ministerial Task Force for the NATO Foreign
Ministers meeting in Oslo in late May 2023.
From 2013 to 2017 he was State Secretary and Deputy Minister for Defence during the term of office
of Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide. Starting in 2010 he was Head of the International Department of the
Norwegian Parliament, and Permanent Secretary for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
Defence until 2013.
From 2002 to 2006 Bø held the position as Head of the Private Office of two Norwegian Foreign
Ministers (Petersen og Støre).
Bø holds a Master in Law and was seconded as a legal adviser to Carl Bildt in 1997, during his tenure as
High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has held various positions in the Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has served in the Norwegian Delegation to the CSCE/OSCE and at the
Norwegian Embassy in Tallinn.
Ambassador Bø is appointed Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. He was awarded the
US Navy Distinguished Public Service Award on 11 September 2015.
Øystein Bø was born in 1959, is married and has two children.
