Sweden celebrates 75 years in the Philippines

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Anne Linde speaking about the 75 years Swedish Philippines Anniversary. The year 2022 marks 75 years of Sweden’s diplomatic relations with the Philippines and in commemoration of this milestone, the Embassy of Sweden in Manila has prepared a year-long digital campaign.

The campaign is entitled ‘Moving forward together’ and starts with a message from Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde.

In her message, Ann Linde says Sweden and the Philippines have a lot in common.

“Both our nations have historically been strong supporters of the United Nations and multinational and regional corporations based on democratic views, human rights and rule-based international law,” she says.

While talking about the challenges of the pandemic and Sweden’s donation of covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines through COVAX, the Minister also notes that combat in climate change is a priority for both nations.

Sweden’s Ambassador Annika Thunborg, together with Country President of AstraZeneca Philippines Lotis Ramin and British Ambassador Laure Beaufils, recently welcomed the arrival of 1.8M AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses in the Philippines.

According to the Embassy of Sweden in Manila, this is the final batch of the 16.5M doses procured through the multilateral agreements among the national government, local government units, SwedishBritish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and the private sector to help Filipinos through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Embassy also points out that on 14 January, the Swedish Government decided to donate an additional half-million COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVAX. Sweden has thus far donated over 9 million doses and contributed more than SEK 2 billion to global vaccination efforts against COVID-19. Photo: Embassy of Sweden in Manila.