Sweden’s Top Diplomat Billstrom, Who Led NATO Talks, Resigns
(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom will resign from his post in a plan to leave politics, having helped negotiate the entry of his Nordic homeland into NATO as part of the biggest shift in European security since World War II.
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Billstrom, 50, spearheaded more than a year of tough negotiations as Sweden sought to win over the support of Turkey, and later Hungary, for its entry into defense alliance NATO. He announced the resignation in a post on X, saying he plans to step down next week when the country’s parliament resumes work after its summer recess.
Billstrom said he looks forward to “contribute and work hard in other contexts where my commitment can yield results,” without elaborating on his plans.
Sweden joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in March, having applied for entry in May 2022 together with neighboring Finland, after Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine changed the security calculus for the Nordic nation that until then had shunned membership in military alliances for two centuries.
“It hasn’t been an easy decision to make,” Billstrom said about his resignation. “We are in the most serious security situation since World War II and this government has implemented a historic shift of Swedish security policy.”
Billstrom studied history both at the University of Cambridge and Lund University in Sweden before joining the Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, in 2002. He was the first openly bisexual minister in Sweden when he took the post as migration minister in 2006.
Following a spell as group leader for the Moderate party — Sweden’s largest center-right force — in the Riksdag, he was appointed foreign minister in 2022 by Ulf Kristersson, who was able to form a coalition government with support from the nationalist Sweden Democrats after that year’s elections.
Billstrom’s announcement comes on the same day as his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, tendered his resignation as part of a government shakeup that saw five other ministers step down in Kyiv. Sweden has been a staunch supporter of the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion and during Billstrom’s tenure, has stepped up arms transfers to include tanks and surveillance aircraft.
As he announced his decision, Billstrom said Sweden has become part of the “core of countries that support Ukraine, and we have also laid out long-term policies to counteract expansion of Russian power.”
In a post on Instagram, the prime minister lauded Billstrom’s work of 22 years as a minister and member of parliament, but omitted saying who he plans to name as Sweden’s next top diplomat.
“The last two years as a foreign minister may have been the most grueling of all,” Kristersson said. “The war in Ukraine has redrawn the geopolitical map, and he shouldered the task of keeping the European Union united in its support for Ukraine through the Swedish EU presidency. While the NATO membership was the result of a team effort, a lot was accomplished by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ skillful work.”
--With assistance from Gina Turner.
(Adds details, Prime Minister quotes from sixth paragraph)
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