President Tharman in Sweden from Oct 17 for five-day state visit

SINGAPORE - President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be making a five-day state visit to Sweden, where he will have engagements with various political and business leaders from the Scandinavian country.

The trip, from Oct 17 to 21, is the first state visit to Sweden by a Singapore President and commemorates the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that President Tharman will receive a ceremonial welcome at the Royal Palace in the city of Stockholm, and be hosted to a state banquet by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia.

President Tharman will also meet with members of the Swedish Parliament, known as the Riksdag, including Speaker Andreas Norlén and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Kristersson has been leading a caretaker government since Sweden’s September general election. He had resigned after his ruling right-wing bloc was narrowly defeated by the the centre-left opposition in the polls.

While in Stockholm, President Tharman and King Carl XVI Gustaf will engage with Swedish entrepreneurs and business leaders from various sectors, and visit Fryshuset, a Swedish non-profit organisation working on youth empowerment.

The President is slated to deliver a lecture at the Stockholm School of Economics and be hosted to lunch by members of the Stockholm City Council. He will also attend a reception hosted for Singaporeans based in Sweden.

President Tharman and the King will also go to Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city, where they will visit the Chalmers University of Technology and the World of Volvo automotive museum for an engagement with businesses on the future of transport.

During the state visit, President Tharman will be accompanied by his spouse Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli, Minister of State for Manpower and Energy, Trade and Industry Foo Cexiang and Members of Parliament Valerie Lee and Vikram Nair.

The delegation will also include business leaders and officials from the President’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry, National Research Foundation, Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore.

President Tharman’s state visit continues the momentum of high-level engagements between the two countries that followed King Carl XVI Gustaf’s state visit to Singapore in November 2024, which was the first by a Swedish monarch.

Senior Minister K. Shanmugam visited Sweden in May 2026 to engage Swedish officials in the security and defence domains, while Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy, Business, and Industry Ebba Busch visited Singapore in October 2025 for Singapore International Energy Week.

Total trade in goods between Singapore and Sweden stood at $1.9 billion in 2025, while total trade in services was $1.4 billion in 2024.

As at 2024, Sweden’s foreign direct investment stock in Singapore was $9.7 billion, while Singapore’s direct investments in Sweden amounted to $1.6 billion.

There are currently close to 600 Swedish companies with a presence in Singapore. Recent investments from Sweden include an expansion of Spotify’s commercial team, which is based in its South-east Asian regional headquarters in the city-state.