Foreign relations of Sweden
The foreign policy of Sweden was formerly based on the premise that national security is best served by staying free of alliances in peacetime in order to remain a neutral country in the event of war, with this policy lasting from 1814 in the context of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars until the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
These two objectives required heavy expenditures for social welfare, defence spending at rates considered low by Western European standards (around 1.2% of GNP prior to 2022),[1] and close attention to foreign trade opportunities and world economic cooperation.
In 2024, Sweden formally became part of a military alliance for the first time since the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition by joining NATO.
The strong interest of the Swedish Government and people in international cooperation and peacemaking has been supplemented in the early 1980s by renewed attention to Nordic and European security questions.
[citation needed] Sweden addressed this controversy by reserving the right not to participate in any future EU defence alliance.
In membership negotiations in 1993–1994, Sweden also had reserved the right to make the final decision on whether to join the third stage of the EMU "in light of continued developments."
Government leaders have favored national liberation movements that enjoy broad support among developing world countries, with notable attention to Africa.
[7] Sweden's nonalignment policy has led it to serve as the protecting power for a number of nations who don't have formal diplomatic relations with each other for various reasons.
It currently represents the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations in North Korea for consular matters.
On several occasions when the United Kingdom broke off relations with Iran (including the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Salman Rushdie affair, and the 2011 storming of the British embassy in Tehran), Sweden served as the protecting power for the UK.
The public opinion in the Nordic region had changed in favour of joining NATO since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24 of the same year.
[8] Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in March 2022 that her government would have to respond if Sweden became a NATO member.
[9] However, in June 2022 President Vladimir Putin contradicted the statement, claiming that Sweden and Finland can "join whatever they want" on the condition that there will be no NATO military deployment in either country.
[10] Sweden has employed its military on numerous occasions since the end of the Cold War, from Bosnia and Congo to Afghanistan and Libya.
These include a desire for political influence in international institutions, an interest in collective milieu shaping, and a concern to improve the interoperability and effectiveness of the Swedish military.
[230] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 5 September 1897 when has been accredited first Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Persia to Sweden with residence in St. Peterbourg Mirza Reza Khan Ar Faed-Doouleh.
[90] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 24 June 1947 when has been accredited Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Syria with residence in Cairo, Widar Bagge.
In Sweden, this relationship is a recurrent important theme of 20th-century history, although maybe by most Swedes considered to be an issue of purely historical relevance now that both countries have been members of the European Union since 1995.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on 24 January 1833 when Carl Peter von Heidenstam (until then Consul General) was appointed as Chargé d'Affaires of the Kingdom of Sweden and Norway in Greece.
