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Biden to host Swedish PM Kristersson

The two leaders will discuss Nato and Ukraine.

Published: 1 July 2023 14:59 CEST

Biden to host Swedish PM Kristersson

Swedish Prime minister Ulf Kristersson looks on during a press conference at the European Council on June 30, 2023. Photo: JOHN THYS/AFP.

The two leaders “will review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said in a statement about the July 5 meeting.

Sweden asked to join NATO in May 2022, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, but its membership bid, which must be ratified by all 31 member states, has been blocked by Turkey and Hungary.

Western officials had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the bloc by the time a NATO summit is held in Lithuania on July 11-12.

But earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Sweden for allowing a protest during which a man burned pages from the Koran, further clouding the Nordic nation’s chances of quickly joining the military alliance.

“I am delighted that President Biden is inviting us to a meeting next week, before the NATO summit in Vilnius the following week,” Kristersson said in a statement. “The focus of the visit will be on Sweden’s NATO accession.”

At the White House on Wednesday, Biden and Kristersson will also “discuss our shared commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression,” the White House said.

They will also talk about transatlantic coordination on China, climate change and emerging technologies.

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Ukraine's ambassador to Sweden criticises 'deeply offensive' TV brothel joke

In the programme, whose name translates as Immigrants for Swedes, a play on the Swedish for Immigrants courses offered to new arrivals in the country, celebrity panelists representing a range of immigrant groups in Sweden are tasked with giving varying answers to questions from presenter Ahmed Berhan.

A group of ordinary Swedes then have to guess whether the panelists are lying or telling the truth.

INTERVIEW: ‘It’s a way to jokingly show that Sweden is very segregated’

In an episode on March 7th, contestants were asked to answer the question ‘which immigrant group were granted the most residence permits in Sweden in 2022?’

“It’s actually, unsurprisingly, people from Ukraine,” answered journalist and comedian Elaf Ali.

“That’s not true,” fellow contestant Thanos Fotas remarked.

To which Ali responded: “Maybe you don’t think about it that much because they’re light haired so they blend in,” before adding that “it’s maybe most obvious in, like, the brothels.”

Ukrainian Ambassador to Sweden, Andrii Plakhotniuk, reacted on social media site X saying that he was “deeply upset” by Ali’s joke. He demanded that she apologise and that and public broadcaster SVT, who broadcast the programme,”takes the necessary measures to prevent similar situations in the future”.

“I consider such statements deeply offensive and completely unacceptable, given the circumstances of the full-scale Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which forced Ukrainian women to flee abroad to save their lives and the lives of their children,” Plakhotniuk wrote.

Ali addressed the criticism in a post on X.

“In the season premiere of IFS, which was broadcast last week, I made jokes about an imam, Somalians and about the tragedies of war (Ukraine) – women who are forced into prostitution,” she wrote, adding that the Ukrainians were “super angry” and had been “bombarding” her on social media.

“So many harsher things have been said, but the idea that a group of people should be immune from having jokes made about them is crazy. And no one seems to care about using their brain to think a step further. Why are women ending up in this position? Who is buying services from these women?” Ali added in a comment under her post on X.

In a comment to Aftonbladet, the broadcaster’s head of programming, Christina Hill ruled out the possibility of SVT issuing a formal apology.

“IFS is a programme with a clear premise: making jokes about stereotypes surrounding ethnicity and culture, often at the boundary of what’s considered socially acceptable. I think it’s clear that the comment is meant as a joke and believe that our audience understands this,” Hill said.

“It is of course not relevant for SVT to take any measures in response to this, as the content of the programme is covered by Swedish freedom of speech,” she added.

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