Foreign and security policy

Sweden’s term as OSCE Chair concludes at the end of the year. At a time of major security policy challenges, Sweden has worked during the year to increase the Organization’s relevance and advance Sweden’s priority issues – such as gender equality and climate change.

The leaders of the EU Member States and the Eastern Partnership countries will meet for the sixth Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on 15 December. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson will represent Sweden.

The leaders of the EU Member States and the Eastern Partnership countries will meet for the sixth Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on 15 December. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson will represent Sweden.

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson will take part in the European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday 16 December.

Check against delivery

Check against delivery

Swedish Minister for Defence Peter Hultqvist and Minister of Defence of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov will hold a joint press briefing in connection with Minster Reznikov’s visit to Sweden.

The fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament will be held on Tuesday 14 December. Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde will chair the meeting together with Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will come to Stockholm for the first time in her new role.

Foreign Ministers Ann Linde of Sweden and Ayman Safadi of Jordan co-chaired the International Ministerial Conference in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that took place in Brussels on 16 November 2021.

On 15–16 November, Minister for Defence Peter Hultqvist took part in the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC). The Ministers discussed EU training missions and met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a ministerial lunch. In a joint meeting with the Ministers for Foreign Affairs on 15 November the first draft of the EU Strategic Compass was discussed.

On 25–27 October, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the NAC – NATO’s principal political decision-making body – will visit Sweden and Finland which are partners to NATO.

Opening statement by the Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, Ann Linde, Minister for Foreign Affairs Sweden, at the 30-year anniversary for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw on 14 October 2021.

Arrivals and doorstep at Malmömässan

The Holocaust was driven by hatred against Jews. However, it affected not only Jews but the whole society. Antisemitism is a concern for society as a whole and may be symptomatic of eroding democracy. Contemporary antisemitism, antigypsyism and other forms of racism and intolerance exist in many forms and flourish in different contexts. Wherever we see it, we must both react – and – act. The concluding Plenary Session focuses on action, the steps forward to ensure implementation of the pledges presented at the Forum, and how we can join forces to strengthen the work for Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism and other forms of racism.

Today, few survivors remain to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. The opening Plenary Session reflects on the consequences of the diminishing number of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, the Roma genocide and the persecution that different groups were exposed to during the Holocaust. The international community has an obligation to ensure that the Holocaust is remembered and that future generations understand the causes of and the process leading up to the Holocaust, and to reflect on its consequences to prevent this from ever happening again

Sweden’s participation in international crisis management and peace support contributes to upholding and strengthening the rules-based global order and is a priority of Sweden’s national security strategy (SB2017/00106–1). The basic premise of Sweden’s engagement is that security is best built through collaboration and partnership with others.

Developments in Afghanistan are extremely serious. Lives, and the advances made in the last 20 years, are under threat. The Swedish evacuation at Kabul Airport has been completed. Sweden’s commitment to the Afghan people remains steadfast.