”Niclas Kvarnström is a prominent diplomat with long experience from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the European Union and private business. He has broad foreign and security policy competence that covers both Europe, Russia, China and several multilateral cooperation organizations”, says Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (The Moderate Party) in a press release.
”I am glad that he has accepted to return to Sweden from Brussels to serve as national security adviser”, he continues.
Dagens Nyheter revealed the appointment earlier on Thursday.
Third time lucky
Niclas Kvarnström will take up the post on Monday. The Government Offices will thus have its third national security adviser in less than a year.
Kvarnström has had various leading positions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs over the past decade, including as ambassador to Singapore 2018–2021, but is currently on leave from there, writes DN.
He most recently comes from a management position at the European External Action Service in the EU.
Kvarnström succeeds Tobias Thyberg – formerly ambassador to Ukraine and Afghanistan – who left the post in May, just hours after being appointed, after “old pictures” of a sensitive nature from a dating app came into focus.
Security incidents
Thyberg in turn replaced Henrik Landerholm, who resigned in January, after just over two years in the post, following DN's revelations that he had caused repeated security incidents.
This included Landerholm leaving classified documents at a conference center in March 2023. Furthermore, he left a notebook at Sveriges Radio in January 2023 and his mobile phone at the Hungarian embassy in December 2022.
For the first-mentioned incident, he is charged with suspected negligence with secret information. The trial is scheduled for mid-August.
