Ambassador Arne Walther presented his credentials as Norway’s Ambassador to Japan to H.M. Emperor Akihito on 23 March 2009.
A Norwegian career diplomat since 1972, his previous positions include:
2008-2009
Ambassador, Senior Adviser on Energy Affairs. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2003-2007
Secretary General, International Energy Forum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2002-2003
Ambassador to Austria and Slovakia as well to the UN Offices in Vienna
1999-2002
Director General and Head of the Department for Trade Policy, Natural Resources and Environment. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Concurrently Ambassador to the International Energy Agency, Paris. Chairman of the IEA’s Governing Board 2000-2002.
1995-1999
Ambassador to India, Bhutan and Nepal and 1995-1996 also to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, resident in New Delhi.
1989-1994
Ambassador, Special Adviser on Energy Affairs. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Concurrently Ambassador to the International Energy Agency, Paris. Deputy Chairman of the IEA’s Governing Board and Chairman of the IEA’s Committee on Non-Member Countries 1991-1994. Head of Delegation to negotiations on the European Energy Charter 1991-1994
1987-1989
Special Adviser on International Affairs to Prime Minister Brundtland
1985-1987
Head of the Energy Division. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1982-1985
Board Director and Director for External Relations of Norsk Agip. Oslo
(Norwegian affiliate of Italy’s state oil company Agip)
1980-1981
Political Adviser to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy
1977-1979
Executive Officer on secondment to the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister for Nordic Co-operation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
1974-1976
Attaché, later Second Secretary, Norwegian Embassy in London
1971-1973
Translator, later Attaché at the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow
Ambassador Walther has Fil.kand degrees from the Universities of Stockholm and Lund, Sweden, in Political Science, Economics and English 1969 and 1971. He is a graduate of the Norwegian Defence Language School (Russian) 1969-70 and did post-graduate studies in International Relations at the London School of Economics 1975-1976.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, USA in 1946, he is accompanied to Tokyo by his wife Anita Pratap (Indian national), award-winning journalist, author and film maker, former CNN Bureau Chief for South Asia and correspondent for Time Magazine.