September 4 () –
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down from his post, a resignation that would accompany his definitive exit from politics, although he did not explain the reasons. “I am 50 years old and I hope to be able to contribute and work hard in other contexts,” he said.
Billstrom was, among other things, one of the architects of Sweden’s accession to NATO in March of this year. “We have left behind more than 200 years of non-alignment and this would not have been possible without the hard work carried out by the Government and the Foreign Ministry,” he stressed in his farewell note in X.
“The importance of this for the security of Sweden and our Nordic and Baltic friends can hardly be underestimated,” he said, while warning of the significant challenges that his successor will face. “We are in the most serious political and security situation since World War II,” he said.
“We belong to the core of countries that support Ukraine” and in the Middle East, he argued, “in the long term the only reasonable solution is two states (…) There is no shortage of tasks for my successor, I wish him the best of luck,” he said.
Billstrom said that this decision is accompanied by his departure from politics, where he has spent the last 25 years playing different roles. “I will be leaving my seat in the Riksdag – the Swedish Parliament. What I will do next is still open,” he said.
Shortly after this announcement, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson took to social media to send a message of thanks. “Tobias has fulfilled his national service with great success,” stressing that these last two years at the Foreign Ministry have been “the most exhausting of all.”
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