The venue was booked ahead of the talks on trade tariffs that took place in Stockholm in July between the US Finance Minister Scott Bessent and China's Vice Premier He Lifeng.
In addition to the venue itself, fika, lunch and dinner had also been ordered.
Olle Lundin, who is a professor of administrative law at Uppsala University, calls the Government Offices' booking a "waste of tax money".
This is an unbelievable waste.
This is such a major blunder, he says to Ekot.
The meeting itself was held instead at Rosenbad in central Stockholm, where the bill for the food landed at 226,000 kronor.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs writes in an email to Ekot that the choice in a late stage fell on another venue "which was deemed more suitable" and that it was then not possible to cancel the alternative venue without cost.
