Swedish top diplomat to step down, leave politics

Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom announced Wednesday he will resign and leave politics next week.

Billstrom, who has helped negotiate the country's entry into NATO, said on X that it "has not been an easy decision but something that I have thought about and processed for some time."

He took his post in October 2022, when Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson formed a right-wing coalition government between the Moderate Party, the Liberals and Christian Democrats.

Billstrom wrote that Sweden is in the most serious security situation since World War II "and this government has carried out a historic restructuring of Swedish security policy.

"We now belong to the core of the countries that support Ukraine and have also put forward a long-term policy to counter Russian power expansion," he said.

Noting an escalating situation in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, Billstrom stressed that a two-state solution is the only way forward.

"The situation in the Middle East is also serious and Sweden is fighting, together with the EU, the USA and other countries, to stabilize the situation. In the long run, a two-state solution is the only reasonable one," he added.

Marking the end of an almost two-year-long wait, Sweden became a member of NATO in March after the Nordic country initially submitted its application to join the Western alliance together with neighboring Finland, three months after the war in Ukraine began.

Finland became a NATO member last year, while Sweden's application was delayed by Türkiye and Hungary.

Türkiye's parliament ratified Sweden's membership bid in January, while Hungary delayed it until Kristersson visited Budapest on Feb. 23, after which the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban eventually approved Sweden's accession.