He also said that the center would work closely with western governments and international human rights organizations and take advantage of the vast political networks that its members, all former politicians and bureaucrats, had built up over the years.
[3] In 2021, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported that Bondevik personally received 5 million NOK (around 560,000 USD) from Muslim World League, an NGO with close connections to the Saudi Arabian government, between the years 2019-2021.
[4] The following year, the Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land disclosed that Bondevik had received an undisclosed amount to write a favorable op-ed piece in their pages earlier in 2022, praising the government of Kazakhstan.
Some commentators also felt that it was inappropriate for a recently retired prime minister to accept large sums of money from both the Government and the Norwegian business community, which up until that moment had benefitted from his politics.
He also went on record to say that securing donations from private companies and businesses was in his opinion a positive thing, and he encouraged other humanitarian organizations to do the same.