The newly appointed foreign minister, Tobias Billström, aims to end Sweden’s feminist foreign policy.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson unveiled his new government on Tuesday, with ministers chosen from among his three coalition parties: the moderates (13 ministers), the Christian Democrats (six) and the Liberals (five). Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch was appointed Minister of Energy and Food, while Liberal leader Johan Pehrson was appointed Minister of Labor Markets and Integration.
“Change was necessary, change is now possible,” Ulf Kristersson said in his introductory speech to the Swedish Riksdag, adding that “this cooperation forms the basis for the long-term solution of Sweden’s main social problems.”
After the presentation of the new government, the newly appointed foreign minister, Tobias Billström, declared in an interview with Aftonbladet that the takeover of the new government would put an end to “Sweden’s feminist foreign policy”.
“We will not engage in feminist foreign policy. This label did not serve a good purpose. This obscured the fact that Swedish foreign policy must be based on Swedish interests and values,” he told the paper.
Under the previous Social Democratic government, which had been in power since 2008, Sweden had introduced a “feminist foreign policy”, defined as a policy to promote equality between women and men as a fundamental objective of foreign policy.
This policy included the realization of the fundamental human rights of women and girls, both as an obligation of international agreements and as a prerequisite for achieving Sweden’s broader goals of peace, security and sustainable development.
According to Billström, however, other major foreign policy challenges await the new government.
“The biggest and most important task is what the prime minister mentioned in her government statement. To ensure that NATO membership is successful and that we can fulfill the parts of the tripartite agreement between Turkey, Finland and Sweden to ensure that we can become members and improve our security situation,” he told SVT Nyheter.
Billström stressed that the dialogue with Ankara will also not change under the new government.
“It is important that we maintain a good and positive dialogue in this area; You won’t see any difference from the outgoing government. This issue found broad support in Parliament. The policy in this area is set,” he told SVT.
Turkey has presented a list of requirements to approve Finland and Sweden’s candidacy to join NATO.
This includes demanding that Sweden start exporting weapons to Turkey and that Stockholm cut all ties with the YPG militia, which fights ISIS and which Ankara considers a terrorist organization, and extradite some Kurdish political refugees captured by those accused of terrorism by the Turkish government.
