Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is traveling to Sweden from this Wednesday to Friday. A highlight of the trip is a reception with Queen Silvia in Stockholm. A meeting with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is also planned at the start. “As part of our European strategy, we are expanding our sphere of influence,” said Söder to the German Press Agency on Tuesday. “We traditionally have close contacts with southern and southeastern Europe, but we also want to expand the partnership to northern Europe. We don’t want to leave that to northern Germany alone.” Kristersson invited him to the Munich Security Conference a year ago, and he is now happy to accept this invitation.
There are three main focuses of the trip, Söder announced: In energy policy, the Free State wants to strengthen hydrogen cooperation. “It’s not just the north of Germany that wants to be supplied, but in the long term we also need longer pipelines to the south of Germany,” he emphasized. Other topics include defense and aerospace. “When it comes to defense, after Sweden joins NATO, we want to expand the connections between Bavaria, as a traditional Bundeswehr location, and Sweden,” said Söder. That is why we will also meet the Swedish defense and civil protection ministers.
“And thirdly, we want to cooperate more closely in the field of aerospace – with new partnerships, perhaps also with a university exchange.” Bavarian companies are already very active at the Kiruna location. Söder wants to visit the city in the far north of Sweden at the end of his trip on Friday.
Söder called the planned reception by Queen Silvia a “great honor”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/.”We are very happy that Queen Silvia will welcome us. She has already been a guest in Bavaria and always has one kept a close connection here.” The Free State also supports projects run by the World Childhood Foundation, which it founded – which is why there are connecting lines here too. After a trip to Israel in December, this is Söder’s second multi-day trip abroad in just a few months.