STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden is leaving behind a foreign policy of seeking to be a “moral great power” on the global stage and will focus more squarely on Swedish interests and security, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Wednesday.
The commitment of past foreign policies not to choose sides has weakened the Nordic country’s clout, occasionally leaving it at odds with partners in the West, according to the text of a speech Stenergard was giving at a think tank in Stockholm.
“For too long, Sweden’s foreign policy was determined by an idea that we should be a moral great power,” according to the speech, which set out foreign policy priorities.
“A moral great power whose morals consisted of not choosing sides.
A moral great power with the belief that we could shape the world not through action but through symbolic policy.”
“With this government, we have consigned that conception to the history books.”
After spending the Cold War, which spanned more than four decades from 1947, as a militarily unaligned country, Sweden joined NATO earlier this year as it radically redesigned its security policy in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Stenergard was appointed foreign minister in September after her predecessor, Tobias Billstrom, who spearheaded Sweden’s NATO accession process, unexpectedly resigned.
Under both ministers, Sweden has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in Europe.
Sweden’s past foreign policy, centered around neutrality and non-alignment, allowed it to play an influential role in global conflicts, often punching above its weight as a peace broker while sometimes fiercely criticising Western policy.
“It is a question of prioritising. We should use Sweden’s foreign policy capital where we can make the most difference and where our interests are the strongest,” Stenergard said.
“We have a partial responsibility to do good in the world, but the full responsibility to safeguard Swedish security and Swedish interests,” she said.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
