Norway and China will restart work on a free-trade deal after they agreed to end a six-year diplomatic freeze, the Financial Times reports. Oslo and Beijing have normalized their relations after the fallout from the 2010 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo led China to suspend ties. Borge Brende, Norway’s foreign minister, said: “I am happy that today in Beijing we can mark a full normalization of our political and diplomatic relations with China. This provides great opportunities for co-operation.” Norway’s centre-right government has made re-establishing relations with China one of its main priorities. The government drew criticism from human rights activists for refusing to meet the Dalai Lama in 2014 as part of its attempts to gain favor with Beijing.
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