The Swedish Royal Court has announced that King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will undertake a State Visit to the Republic of Estonia at the beginning of May.
The trip will be undertaken from 2 to 4 May. It will include stops in the capital Tallinn, and Tartu, the second largest inhabited centre of the country, home to one of the country’s most prestigious universities. The city has been selected to serve as the European Capital of Culture for 2024, together with Bodø, Norway, and Bad Ischl, Austria.
The visit is set to “deepen the very good relationship between Estonia and Sweden,” as well as “contribute to a deepened cooperation in security and defence,” according to the press release from the Royal Court.
Other themes of the visit will include technology to advance the green transition, business and digitalisation, as well as education and research.
To discuss all of these points, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will be accompanied by a delegation of state and business officials, both from public and private companies that work in the various sectors that will constitute the main focuses of the trip.
The Swedish Royal Court said that press accreditations would be handled by the International Press Centre at the Ministry of Foreign affairs, as is usual in these situations.
The visit comes at a crucial time for both countries. Estonia is one of the countries looking at the Russia-Ukraine conflict with worry, as they share a border with the aggressor and was once a part of the former Soviet block, thus making them one of the potential targets.
However, the Baltic States have an advantage that Sweden still doesn’t have: all three of them are NATO members. Sweden and Finland have jointly made the request, but with Hungary and Turkey not having ratified their request yet, they are currently in limbo, which is why there has been an intensified effort on the part of Sweden to build stronger defence ties with NATO members.
