Bilateral relations Switzerland–Sweden
Political relations between Switzerland and Sweden are excellent and entirely problem-free. The two countries not only cooperate at a political level, but also have close economic and cultural ties.
Key aspects of diplomatic relations
Switzerland and Sweden cultivate very good diplomatic relations and maintain active bilateral contacts. The two countries pursue similar foreign policy goals, especially with regard to human rights, peacebuilding, the environment, development cooperation and climate protection. Their cooperation in multilateral bodies, particularly in the UN, is particularly significant.
Switzerland and Sweden participate in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Korea (NNSC), which ended the Korean War in 1953. Since then, Swedish and Swiss military personnel have been stationed in Panmunjeom on the border between North and South Korea.
Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Korea, Swiss Armed Forces
Economic cooperation
Sweden is Switzerland's most important trade and investment partner in the Nordic region. The annual volume of trade in goods amounts to approximately CHF 3 billion. In addition to trade in goods, trade in services also plays an important role. Swiss companies based in Sweden are active in a wide range of sectors. The core Swiss business activities there are in construction, logistics, transport and ICT services.
Trade promotion, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Country information, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO
Cooperation in education, research and innovation
Research institutions from the two countries work together within the framework of EU research programmes. Examples include the Human Brain Project, a European undertaking led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and Graphene, a major project launched by Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Switzerland is also a founding member of the European Spallation Source (ESS), a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), based in Lund in Sweden.
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Scholars and Artists, SERI
Swiss nationals in Sweden
According to the Statistics on the Swiss Abroad, 6234 Swiss nationals were living in Sweden at the end of 2021.
Statistics on the Swiss Abroad
History of bilateral relations
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) triggered considerable contact between the Old Confederation and the kingdom of Sweden, which was involved in the war, and resulted in Sweden's ten-year occupation of the Fricktal region.
In 1815, Sweden signed the Act of the Congress of Vienna, recognising Switzerland's permanent neutrality.
Switzerland dispatched its first consular representative to Oslo in 1847. Until the first Swiss consulate was established in Stockholm in 1887, the Swiss consul residing in Oslo was also responsible for Sweden. From 1867, Sweden maintained a consulate in Geneva, and in 1915 it established a permanent diplomatic mission. Switzerland opened an embassy in Stockholm in 1919.
In 1957, Max Petitpierre was the first federal councillor to make an official visit to Sweden. King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden made a state visit to Switzerland in 1985.
