Israel’s foreign minister pays first visit to Sweden since 2001

“We are opening a new page in relations between Israel and Sweden, after years in which Sweden took a critical line against Israel,” Cohen said in a statement, adding that the meeting on Monday was a sign of a “change in direction” of the ties between the two countries.

A new era for our relationship with Sweden 🇸🇪🇮🇱.

More than 20 years have passed since an Israeli foreign minister visited Sweden, and today I had an important meeting with the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm, @TobiasBillstrom , a close ally of Israel.

Sweden… pic.twitter.com/Z9By5Z8jSq

— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) May 15, 2023

According to Billström, the visit was organised in order to “strengthen the bilateral relations between Sweden and Isreal”. He described the meeting on Twitter as “very good and productive”.

Sweden and Israel’s relations have been frosty for a number of years, partly after the former centre-left government recognised Palestine as a state in 2014.