This article sets out the diplomatic relationship between India and Sweden: the record of high-level visits, the ministerial and parliamentary contacts of recent years, the dialogue mechanisms between the two governments, their cooperation in multilateral forums and the main areas covered by bilateral agreements. It is based on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) bilateral brief of May 2026, and office holders and figures are given as that brief records them.

How the brief describes the relationship

According to the MEA brief of May 2026, India and Sweden have had "longstanding close relations based on common values; strong business, investment and R&D linkages; and similar approaches to meet global challenges of peace & security and development". The brief states that regular political engagement, intensifying business ties and cooperation on global challenges and multilateral issues define the partnership. It adds that innovation, technology, investment and R&D collaborations provide "the bedrock of this modern relationship".

The brief also places Sweden in its European setting. Sweden has been a NATO member since March 2024, held the Presidency of the EU Council during the first half of 2023, and chaired the Nordic Council and Nordic Baltic (NB8) in 2024. It is one of the 8 members of the Arctic Council.

High-level engagement since 2014

The brief records a sharp upswing in high-level engagement since 2014, with 11 visits or interactions at Head of State or Head of Government level. It lists the following Prime Ministerial level interactions:

  • September 2015, New York
  • February 2016, Make in India, Mumbai
  • April 2018, Stockholm
  • April 2020, telephone conversation
  • March 2021, Virtual Summit
  • May 2021, India-EU Summit
  • November 2021, on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow
  • May 2022, Copenhagen, 2nd India-Nordic Summit
  • December 2023, on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai

The count of 11 also includes the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Sweden in May-June 2015 and the visit of His Majesty the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf to India in December 2019. The Prime Ministers of the two countries interacted during the India EU Leaders' Meeting in virtual format on 8 May 2021 and in Glasgow on 1 November 2021. After the brief, an MEA joint statement records Prime Minister Modi's official visit to Gothenburg on 17 May 2026, at which the two Prime Ministers agreed to elevate relations to a Strategic Partnership and endorsed a Joint Action Plan 2026-2030.

Sweden hosted the First ever India Nordic Summit in Stockholm in April 2018, in which Prime Minister Modi and his counterparts from all five Nordic countries participated. During that visit, the two sides adopted a wide-ranging Joint Action Plan and signed a Joint Innovation Partnership. The first high level Dialogue on Innovation Policy was co-chaired by Prime Minister Modi and the King of Sweden in December 2019.

PM Löfven was the Chief Guest at the 2016 Make in India event, and Sweden hosted a major Make in India event in 2017. Sweden also participated in the First India Nordic Baltic Conclave, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar in November 2020.

Visits at Head of State and Head of Government level

The brief counts six such visits from the Indian side: PM Nehru (1957), PM Indira Gandhi (1972), PM Rajiv Gandhi (1986 and 1988), President Pranab Mukherjee (2015) and PM Narendra Modi (2018). PM Modi paid a further official visit to Gothenburg on 17 May 2026.

From the Swedish side, it counts eight: PM Tage Erlander (1960), PM Olof Palme (1985), HM King Carl XVI Gustaf (1993), PM Goran Persson (2003), HM King Carl XVI Gustaf (2004), PM Frederik Reinfeldt (2009), PM Stefan Löfven (Make in India, Mumbai, 2016) and HM King Carl XVI Gustaf (2019). Former PM Goran Persson visited India in 2015 to address the Vivekananda International Foundation, and former PM Carl Bildt participated in the Raisina Dialogue in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025.

Ministerial and parliamentary contacts

The brief records 1 PM level interaction and around 30 ministerial interactions in 2023-26. It notes that the two Prime Ministers met in three different formats during COP28.

In February 2026, Swedish Energy, Business and Industry Minister and Deputy PM Ebba Busch attended the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi from 18-20 February, together with a business delegation. On the sidelines of the summit she met Communications Minister Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia and CIM Shri Piyush Goyal.

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard paid an official visit to India and participated in the Raisina Dialogue 2025. She interacted with EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar, CIM Mr. Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Electronics and IT Mr. Jitin Prasada. Earlier, EAM had met her on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 26, 2024.

Parliamentary contacts in 2025 included a visit to India by Swedish Parliamentarians from the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2-8 March, who discussed foreign policies and India-Sweden ties with Indian counterparts led by Chairman and MP Mr. Shashi Tharoor. The Sweden-India Friendship Group from the Swedish Parliament, led by Ms. Margareta Cederfelt, visited India in February and met dignitaries from the Parliament of India.

The brief counts five Ministerial visits from Sweden in 2023-24: the Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, the Infrastructure and Housing Minister, the Finance Minister and the Minister for Financial Markets. In 2024, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström visited India to attend the Raisina Dialogue and also visited the Indian Space Research Organisation campus in Bengaluru. He and EAM had earlier met in Delhi on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue in February 2023.

EAM visited Sweden in May 2023 for the EU Indo Pacific Ministerial meeting in Stockholm. He held bilateral discussions with Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, Defence Minister Pål Jonson, the Riksdag Speaker and the National Security Adviser, and met Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. He also met senior business leaders and addressed the Indian diaspora at a special event.

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Andreas Carlson visited India in April 2023 and met the Ministers of Housing and of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the MoS for Civil Aviation. Minister of Finance Elisabeth Svantesson participated in the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting in Bengaluru in February 2023, where she represented the EU Council of Ministers as the EU Presidency and met Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

Earlier, EAM held bilateral discussions with Foreign Minister Ann Linde in Munich in February 2022 and met her again a few days later in Paris at an EU-Indo Pacific Ministerial event. Ann Linde addressed the Raisina Dialogue in April 2021. The brief counts eight substantive Ministerial interactions in 2020, mostly virtual, eight in 2021 and three in 2022.

Dialogue mechanisms

The 8th India-Sweden Foreign Office Consultations were held in New Delhi on April 9, 2026. They were co-chaired by Secretary (West) Sibi George and Swedish State Secretary Dag Hartelius, with the aim of strengthening bilateral cooperation in trade, defence and green energy.

EAM and the Swedish Foreign Minister jointly inaugurated the 21st session of the India Trilateral Forum (ITF) during the May 2023 visit, and the 24th session was held in Stockholm from 10-11 June 2024. In August 2024, the Indian Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change participated in the Track 1.5 Nordic-India Dialogue held on August 22-23 in Oslo, a joint initiative of Nordic institutions and the Ananta Aspen Centre in India.

Multilateral cooperation

At the first ever UN Conference on Human Environment, hosted by Sweden in Stockholm in 1972, the Indian delegation was led by PM Indira Gandhi. Sweden co-hosted Stockholm+50 with Kenya in June 2022, when the Indian delegation was led by the Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

In the 1980s, India and Sweden worked together on nuclear disarmament issues within the framework of the 'Six Nation Peace Summit', which also included Argentina, Greece, Mexico and Tanzania. At the UN General Assembly, the two countries present an annual Joint Statement on Humanitarian Affairs. In 2013, during the Swedish Presidency, India joined the Arctic Council as an Observer at the Kiruna Ministerial Meeting.

The brief notes that both countries have in the past joined hands on causes such as decolonisation, anti-apartheid, development partnerships, environment, UN Peacekeeping, UN Peace building and nuclear disarmament.

Areas covered by agreements

According to the brief, a range of MoUs and bilateral Agreements exist between the two countries, and a number of Joint Working Groups have been established under many of them. The sectors covered include:

  • Science & Technology
  • Healthcare
  • Sustainable Urban Development
  • Renewable Energy
  • Railways
  • Space
  • Polar Science
  • Defence