A few weeks ago, Their Majesties King Rama X and Queen Suthida of Thailand visited Sweden to join the festivities for His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf's 80th birthday milestone. The historic visit reaffirmed the long and warm friendship between our two Kingdoms, a relationship that formally began with the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1868.
As a testament to this relationship, in 2025 Sweden and Thailand signed a Strategic Partnership charting the course for future cooperation in key areas including trade, investment, sustainable development, innovation and defence. Yesterday, the first consultations under the new partnership were held in Bangkok.
It is not a coincidence that the partnership emanates from an old trade agreement. As medium-sized economies, Sweden and Thailand have both benefited greatly from free and rules-based international trade and investment.
In Sweden's case, openness is how we built our highly competitive industries, created our wealth and became one of the most successful and innovative countries in the world.
In today's rapidly changing global environment, we see the international trading system being undermined by protectionism, geoeconomic considerations, supply chain disruptions and even economic coercion.
Many countries are turning inwards rather than seeking new global and regional partnerships. Campaigns such as "Nation First", "Made in Our Country" or "Buy Local" claim that protectionism is the best way to safeguard local jobs and strengthen domestic industries.
Sweden has chosen a different path.
Instead of trying to protect our industries from foreign competition, or focusing only on exports or investment attraction, Sweden elects to compete through openness and free trade, innovation, sustainability and quality. We choose to work with partners, not apart from them.
This is the idea behind the "Made with Sweden" initiative. The word "with" is important. It reflects partnership, shared goals and mutual benefits.
And this approach is backed by real evidence. Sweden invests a higher share of GDP in research and innovation than any other country in the EU. Sweden ranks second globally in the Global Innovation Index 2025. We are one of the European countries with the largest number of publicly listed companies and one of the strongest capital markets.
Stockholm is home to some of Europe's fastest-growing startups and has the world's most unicorns per capita after Silicon Valley. We are also home to Europe's largest private equity fund. None of this happened behind closed doors. It happened because Sweden is connected to global networks and works with the best minds around the world.
Based on this platform, Sweden sees many possibilities to upgrade the ambition to "make with Thailand", for our mutual benefit.
Swedish companies have been investing in Thailand for more than a century and have helped shape important parts of the Thai economy. According to the OECD and Sweden's National Board of Trade, Thailand has been one of Sweden's top investment destinations in Southeast Asia for more than 15 full years.
This makes Thailand a regional hub for Swedish business. In 2025, Sweden ranked sixth among EU countries for foreign investment projects applying to Thailand's BOI.
Swedish companies have contributed to Thailand's development in digital solutions, transport, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and innovation. Their investments have created tens of thousands of jobs and contributed more than 170 billion baht to the Thai economy each year. These are examples of what "Made with Sweden" looks like, and how it delivers results in Thailand.
Sweden also wants to promote greater imports and investments from Thailand. We recognise the potential that Thailand has in areas such as services, agro-industry and manufacturing. Increased imports from Thailand can strengthen Swedish industrial supply chains and benefit Swedish consumers.
For these reasons, Sweden strongly supports the ongoing EU-Thailand free trade negotiations and does its part so that the parties can conclude an ambitious agreement that will open many more opportunities for two-way trade and investment.
Let's shun protectionism and double down on rules-based free trade and secure open markets.
Benjamin Dousa is Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.
