BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN ALBANIA AND SWEDEN

Sweden is the largest country in the Nordic Region, and has also the biggest population. Sweden shares land borders with Norway in the west and Finland in the northeast. It also has coasts facing its Nordic neighbours Denmark, Norway, Åland and Finland. The capital of Sweden is Stokholm.Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and King Carl XVI Gustaf is Sweden’s non-political head of state. The monarch has primarily ceremonial and representative duties.

Sweden is a member of the EU, but has retained the krona as its currency. Sweden is not part of NATO, but is one of six countries (known as ‘Enhanced Opportunity Partners’, under the Partnership Interoperability Initiative) that make particularly significant contributions to NATO operations and other Alliance objectives.

OVERVIEW

Diplomatic relations between Sweden and Albania were (re) established on June 20, 1969. Our Embassy in Stockholm opened in April 1972. During the 70’s and 80’s the relations between our two countries were very limited. The first visit of a Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs to Albania was in May 1991, when Mr. Sten Anderson visited our country in the capacity of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Over the last two decades, Sweden has fully supported our country’s integration into the European Union, initially with the conclusion of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, then for obtaining the status of the candidate country and recently with the decision to open the accession talks with EU.This support is provided not only in the political aspect, but also through development assistance to strengthen administrative capacities and other sectors. The main instrument of Swedish development aid in our country is the activity of the Swedish Agency for Development and Cooperation (SIDA). During the visit of the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, Per Olsson Fridh, on October 6-7 2021, in Tirana, the Second Strategy for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2021-2027 was launched. Part of this Strategy is also Albania.

High level visits have intensified significantly, especially in the recent years. On  July 7, 2020, the former Acting Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gent Cakaj paid a visit to Stockholm. Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister, Ann Linde has visited Tirana several times during 2019, 2020 and 2021.