Sweden appoints new foreign minister with focus on supporting Ukraine

By Stine Jacobsen and Niklas Pollard

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden appointed Maria Malmer Stenergard as foreign minister on Tuesday, choosing the former migration chief to lead policy on Ukraine just six months after her predecessor helped secure traditionally non-aligned Sweden's accession to NATO.

Tobias Billstrom's surprise announcement last week that he was stepping down has led to a broad cabinet reshuffle in which several ministers have been moved.

NATO's newest member is, like much of Europe, trying to boost its military while also being a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. Sweden announced its 17th aid package this week.

"The support for Ukraine is the greatest foreign policy task for the coming years," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a speech to the new session of parliament as he outlined his policy priorities.

"Sweden will support Ukraine for as long as it takes."

Malmer Stenergard, 43, from Kristersson's ruling right-wing Moderate Party, was the face of the government's overhaul of immigration policies, a radical shift taken in cooperation with the far-right Sweden Democrats that has been criticised by some human rights advocates.

The new foreign minister told a news conference it was important to keep up pressure on Russia with sanctions and to work towards Ukrainian EU membership.

"This is, especially after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a grave time that affects everything we do," she said. "At the same time it underlines the importance of foreign policy work, and cooperation in the EU is now more important than in a very long time."

Kristersson's government, which depends on the support of the Sweden Democrats for its survival, is set to trim income taxes in its budget bill this month while focusing on curbing gang crime and reversing the previously liberal immigration policies.

"The government is now carrying out a paradigm shift, and the effect is already clear. The number of asylum seekers has fallen sharply and is this year expected to be the lowest in the 2000s," he told parliament.

Johan Forssell, previously the Moderate minister for international development, will take over the migration portfolio.

(Editing by Terje Solsvik and Alison Williams)