Ambassador Helena Storm Highlights Sweden’s Trade Growth and Peacebuilding Impact in Colombia

The Nordic country of Sweden has been in the news quite a bit recently in Colombia. Yes, Ikea has been establishing a presence in Bogotá and Medellín, and the Grupo Familia consumer packaged goods company is now part of Essity, but notably, Colombia has chosen to upgrade its 1970s era tactical fighters with Saab Gripen fighter jets manufactured in Sweden. The price tag has not been announced on the deal, but several years ago, the Colombian government had earmarked $678 million USD equivalent in the national budget for the aircraft acquisition. The deal value certainly now significantly exceeds this.

What many people may be unaware of though, is that the countries have a 150 year bilateral diplomatic history together. The countries’ ties go far beyond merely commercial ventures. A 19th century Swede even was appointed governor by the fledgeling government after Colombia gained independence from Spain. Sweden has several cultural, peace-building, civil society, and humanitarian initiatives both in Colombia and throughout the Andean region.

Ambassador Helena Storm made time in her busy schedule to speak with Loren Moss, the executive editor of Finance Colombia, where they discussed the bilateral relationship, Storm’s impressions of the country over her time here, and the potential for deepening ties between the two countries.

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Helena Storm, Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Sweden in Colombia. First, I want to thank you very much for making time for us. I know that the life of an Ambassador or any diplomat is very busy. And so it’s an honor to speak to you here briefly. So first of all, thank you.

Helena Storm: Well, thank you very much for inviting me, Loren.

Finance Colombia: I want to talk about Colombia and Sweden having a 150-year-old bilateral relationship. It’s not often the noisiest relationship. You know, like a lot of countries in the news and things like that, for sometimes good reasons, sometimes bad reasons. But of course, Sweden has a strong global reputation for quiet diplomacy and things like that. But tell me, what are the ties that bind Sweden and Colombia? And are there notable examples of collaboration or cooperation going back over the years?

Helena Storm: Yes. Well, as you pointed out, Sweden and Colombia have very good bilateral relations. And last year, we celebrated 150 years of bilateral relations. I mean, that’s 150 years of formal bilateral relations, formal diplomatic relations. Before that, we had relations with Colombia. People-to-people relations and even contacts between the two governments go beyond. Already from the liberation of the country, Sweden was here, and we were present. We had a count, a Swedish count fighting with Simon Bolivar to liberate the country. He was then appointed the first governor of Mompox by Simón Bolívar.

At this time, we had several important Swedish families migrating to Colombia, one of them very well-known, and they’ve been active in many areas of Colombian society. It’s the Familia De Greiff. So we have this tradition of people-to-people relations. And since I would say maybe three, four decades now, we have been very engaged in this Colombian peace process.

In all the formal attempts that have been executed, negotiating between different groups and the Colombian government, Sweden has been present, supporting these talks in different ways. So, a durable peace in Colombia has been part of the main kind of activities that we’ve had over the last decades in Colombia.

Yes, so it’s a strong relation. And we also celebrated the 150th anniversary with the visit of President Gustavo Petro to Stockholm, where we signed a joint declaration of bilateral partnership between Sweden and Colombia. And I would say this partnership kind of sets a new scene for our relations.

Finance Colombia: Absolutely. If I’m not mistaken, there is even a street in Medellín named after De Greiff. I never made the connection until just now, so every day you learn something, as they say. And speaking of President Gustavo Petro’s visit to Stockholm, I want to congratulate you guys. I’m from the US, and Lockheed Martin was there. But that’s an impressive accomplishment. You guys beat out lots of different competitors, all of them worthy. Of course, all of us are partners with Sweden and with the EU. And we’re all allies.

 But first, congratulations to Sweden and Saab on winning the deal to replace Colombia’s fighters, which are from the early 70s, the tactical fighter fleet. And so, how long have you guys been working on that deal? And how big is that deal? People don’t realize outside of aviation that there’s the price of purchasing the hardware, the aircraft, but there are long-term service contracts that go on for decades after; it is a whole program. So maybe if you could elaborate on that, and obviously, that’s a commercial deal, but the way that these things work, it’s a hand-in-hand thing with the government, and everyone is working together. So I’m sure that occupied a lot of your time in the past few years.

Helena Storm: Well, thank you for that comment. And obviously, we are very happy and proud of the fact that Colombia chose the Swedish company Saab to replace their fighter fleet. And these kinds of decisions are long-term; they take a long time to make. So I think we have been discussing this with the Colombian government, and Saab has been offering a solution from their company since Santos’ time in government. I think that’s when they started to look at the replacement of this fleet. And this is normal. This is how long these kinds of acquisitions take. And, as you say, we have a great respect for our competitors, the other countries and companies that were also putting in offers. We are very proud that they chose Saab.

And as you pointed out, this is a long-term relationship for us. We are not looking for clients, we are looking for associates, allies, and friends. And with this kind of agreement, we have the opportunity to reinforce all three of these aspects with Colombia. And so right now we are in the process of identifying the details of this agreement.

Finance Colombia: That’s good to hear. And so also, I understand that part of the package… And Sweden has always been, as have your other Nordic neighbors, really involved in social efforts across the globe and have been leaders in that. And I understand that part of this package, you know… fighters are necessary in the real world. But there’s also, you know, we always have that perennial conflict of guns or butter, as they say. But I understand that part of this package includes a significant investment and efforts by Sweden in Colombia’s Atlantic region, which is a region that suffered a lot of neglect and a lack of investment, and things like that. And I don’t remember the details. Maybe you can fill us in. What’s that social part of the commitment that you guys have agreed to?

“Colombia is such a rich country in culture, history, and nature. I mean, it’s just amazing.” – Helena Storm

Helena Storm: Well, as you said, these kinds of acquisitions are accompanied by an offset program. And the offset program is an agreement to transfer technology and transfer knowledge, so we can multiply, actually, the investments in Colombia. And it’s up to the Colombian government and the Colombian society to identify in which areas, in which sectors, they would like the investments when it comes to technology, and the transfer of knowledge and technology.

And as I said, we are in the process of identifying this part of the offset program, it’s as you call it, direct and partly indirect. And the indirect part, that’s what you are referring to, I guess, when it comes to the social investments. And this is right now being identified and discussed between the Colombian Ministry of Defense and the company Saab.

Finance Colombia: Great. Besides aviation, besides, obviously, Saab, besides the Gripens, what are the primary bilateral trade links between Colombia and Sweden? Has there already been a significant amount of ongoing import and export between the two countries in terms of what Sweden buys from Colombia, and then what products does Sweden export to Colombia? Maybe if you can speak to the trade that has already existed.

Helena Storm: Yes, of course. Well, we have had trade between our nations for over a century. And today, the exports from Colombia to Sweden mainly consist of fruits, flowers, and coffee. And the exports from Sweden to Colombia mainly consist of different pharma products, technology in general, and vehicles and auto parts. And we are trying to increase now, together with the Colombian side, the export possibilities from Colombia to Sweden. We just had a delegation of 20 Colombian companies to look at export possibilities in Sweden.

I went with them and we visited various actors in Sweden in the first week of June. And this was an initiative by my colleague, the Colombian ambassador in Stockholm. We are working very much hand in hand to increase the Colombian exports to Sweden. The numbers are not showing the reality, because when it comes to the trade, much of the trade goes via another European before it comes to Sweden, or before it exits Sweden, which in the statistics does not show Swedish imports from Colombia, or Swedish exports to Colombia. So, the numbers, that’s why I don’t go into numbers, but there has been a significant interest from Swedish companies to increase their presence in Colombia. We have, give and take, 100 Swedish brands and companies in Colombia.

They generate more than 25,000 direct jobs. We’ve also had big investments since I came here. One investment was the company Essity acquiring El Grupo Familia. We have had the inauguration of three IKEA stores in Colombia.

Finance Colombia: Thank you. Thank you, by the way! Thank you. A big fan, of course.

Helena Storm: Yes, thank you very much. No, but it’s an important commitment. We also have the company Zelestra, which is owned by a Swedish investment fund that has invested $300 million USD in two solar parks. And they are now discussing another investment in La Guajira. They have investment plans for several hundred million dollars more until 2027. That’s in the renewable energy sector. We also have other Swedish companies here, a big multinational that every year invests in Colombia to strengthen their position here and strengthen innovation policies that they have here.

I was recently in Rionegro to inaugurate a redistribution center, the second biggest in the world, which the company Essity has just built and inaugurated in Rionegro. That’s also a big investment of at least 35 million dollars. We also invest in the waste-to-energy sector, where we are also taking part from the government side, where we, for example, have financed feasibility studies to increase the possibility of investing in this sector for Swedish companies.

Finance Colombia: That’s impressive. I know about your Rionegro facility. It’s just a few minutes away from where I live here in Rionegro. Yeah, you know, lovely area. I can tell you, it’s kind of funny. So many times before, when I would travel to Miami, just back to the US, whether it’s on business or whatever, and stopping at the big IKEA there near the airport, and carefully weighing my luggage and being sad because things were too heavy to bring back. I remember just writing the article several years ago when we first heard that IKEA was going to open its first store in Bogotá, and now in Envigado. And just aside from being a journalist, just personally excited. And so really very happy for you all.

 You know, I know that is a company of national pride, but then even for us as consumers, so happy about that. Renewable energy is a big area, as well as the strategic investments that you’ve made in companies like the paper companies, like Familia, which makes consumer packaged goods and things like that.

Beyond commerce, are there bilateral cultural or social initiatives to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries? I know sometimes I’ll talk to people and, you know, it’s a little bit different in English compared to Spanish, but I found people get tripped up pronouncing in Spanish, of course, Sweden, with Switzerland, and things like that. It’s like, no, you know, it’s a quiet country because they don’t make bad news. You know, it’s one of those countries that are, and I know you guys are proud of this, quietly doing good things and have a great reputation.

 But tell me about some of the people-to-people ties that you have and the bilateral initiatives that you guys have on an ongoing basis with Colombia.

Helena Storm: Well, thank you. We have in our embassy here in Bogotá two strategies for development cooperation, one bilateral for Colombia and one regional for the whole Latin American region. We manage both of these strategies from the embassy in Colombia. By the way, the Swiss embassy in Colombia is the second biggest in the region after Washington. So it kind of shows how we prioritize Colombia in our bilateral relations. And these two development cooperation strategies have priorities. For the Colombia strategy, our priorities are climate change and environment, peace building, and the third priority is democracy, human rights, and gender equality. And these are kind of the three main focuses for our work when it comes to development cooperation.

And we have several initiatives that also foster these people-to-people relations, and are also working very much hand-in-hand with the private sector to kind of use the Swedish development cooperation as an engine for economic growth. We have several programs for that. I won’t go into detail here, but I could if you want to.

We also work with education, vocational training for youth, and women, within these programs. And regionally, one program that I want to highlight is our mining program, which promotes sustainable mining in the region. And the Colombian chapter of that program was inaugurated or launched a couple of months ago, in May.

So it’s a recent addition to our efforts when it comes to sustainable mining. And in all our programs, we try to always have a gender equality perspective, because Sweden is a country where we highlight the importance of gender equality in all sectors in everything that we do. So gender equality is one of these priorities that we’ve been working on for the last five years that I’ve been here, and also before. But we’ve had numerous activities with exhibitions in the parliament, the Colombian Congress. We will inaugurate one very soon with the mayor’s office in Bogota, where we also highlight the men’s role when it comes to gender equality.

Another area where we have strengthened our bilateral relations recently is the cultural area. Sweden has, since I came, been twice a partner country for FILBo 2021 and 2022. We were also the invited country for the EuroCine Festival 2024. We’ve financed several documentaries that show the civil society’s engagement in peacebuilding and the role in the conflict, in the Colombian conflict. We’ve done that with various of our partners. ICTJ, which is the International Center for Transitional Justice, has been one of the partners, and UN Women another.

We have also strengthened our cooperation through the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogotá, where we have a Swedish head director, musical director. And this orchestra went to Sweden during my five years here. I think it was 2023 or 2022. They traveled the whole orchestra to Sweden to showcase the quality of a Latin American Philharmonic Orchestra. And that was a very successful visit. So we are now planning a new visit to the Nordics for this orchestra in 2026. Unfortunately, after I’ve left, but yeah, maybe it will take place in the Autumn of 2025.

But anyway, these are very important areas of people-to-people relations that we’ve been working on. We’ve also brought Swedish artists here, singers, groups. One example that I want to highlight is Jon Henrik Fjällgren, who came and performed during COP16. And he is part of the Swedish native population, the Sami. But he was adopted from Colombia from an indigenous community in Colombia. So he has a double indigenous identity. He was born as an indigenous baby here in Colombia and then adopted by a Sami family in Sweden. And he has been reconnecting with his Colombian roots. And he is a very famous artist in Sweden, and he won our version of Sweden’s Got Talent. So it’s also been very emotional, I would say, the two visits that he made to Colombia during my five years. And to see how he had been fostering also a rapprochement between our indigenous groups, and how we can engage in further dialogue with them and foster further respect for their traditions and cultures.

Finance Colombia: You bring up an interesting point. A lot of times, I know growing up in the US, and I’m from the Midwest, where we do have a significant Nordic population. But it’s easy to forget how integral it is to society. I don’t even know why, but for some reason, we tend to remember the neighbors in Finland, that they have a significant indigenous population. But of course, Sweden does as well. I don’t know why we unfortunately tend to forget that. But that sounds like an amazing, not just collaboration, but just a story, just life history. And that brings me to ask, like you mentioned, your posting is mature here, and I’m sure that you’ll move on soon.

 But during your time as ambassador, what accomplishments and activities are you most proud of? Not when you look at your resume or when you talk to the foreign minister, but when you talk to friends and family, what are you most proud of about the things that you were able to touch during your time here in Colombia?

Helena Storm: Oh, that’s a very difficult question. But I’m very proud of the footprint that Sweden has left in Colombia. I’m very proud of the association many or the majority of the Colombians have when I travel in the territories, because as an ambassador, I’ve prioritized traveling in Colombia, and to visit the territories, not only working from Bogotá. Colombia is not Bogotá. Colombia is an extremely diverse country. And most of the people that I meet in the territories associate Sweden with support for peacebuilding, conflict resolution, human rights, and gender equality. And I think we have been able during these five years to increase that footprint in Colombia. And I think that’s what I’m most proud of.

And also, obviously, the 150 years of bilateral relations were a unique moment to show that we were the first country to support the first verification mission that came to Colombia to support the peace process in 2004, I think it was, with the establishment of MAPP/OEA, the Organization of American States Verification Mission in Colombia. Sweden was the first country to support financially and politically that they came to Colombia. We created MOE with the actual director of MOE now. MOE is the observation of the electoral organization in Colombia. I would say it’s an organization; it’s an NGO in that sense. It’s not a governmental organization, but it is the organization with the most respect from all parties when it comes to reliability in election monitoring.

We also have supported the territorialization or the expansion of La Defensoría, which is kind of the Ombudsman office in Colombia that was introduced in the 1991 Constitution. Ombudsman is a Swedish word. So the whole idea of the Ombudsman’s office is a Swedish invention, so to speak. And I think the Defensoría is maybe the Colombian institution, the government institution with the most presence in the territories all over Colombia. And as we know, much of the conflict that still occurs here in Colombia occurs due to the lack of official representation, the presence of official institutions around the territory. So that’s another example of how we’ve been working very long term to try to contribute to peacebuilding.

Finance Colombia: I understand. And you’ve been very generous with your time. I’m grateful. Last question for you. What will you miss most about your time? You may come back to visit, but I mean, your time here living in Colombia, what will you miss most about it? And maybe, not so much politically, but you know, really speaking as people, what can the people in the two countries maybe learn from each other?

Helena Storm: Well, that’s a super difficult question because there’s so much that I will miss. Colombia is such a rich country in culture, history, and nature. I mean, it’s just amazing. So obviously, all of that, the strength of the Colombian civil society, I think I’ve never experienced such resilience and strength from civil society. But actually, it’s funny that you say that, because this weekend, I was doing kind of my last errands in Bogotá, and I was panicking a bit, because I said, “Oh, my God, I have to fit now all the Colombian artesanía,” as you say it here, “that I can fit in my suitcase.” Since I came, I’ve been buying handcrafted things from all the territories, and I always wear Colombian artesanía.

Today, I’m wearing an earring from Choco, made by a women’s organization in Choco. And you know, this is one small example of how you can create conditions to sustain yourself economically and empower women economically around the world, just a small example. But I have a huge collection of these, and I was like, “How will I be able to maintain this collection when I travel back to Sweden?” So that’s one of the things I will miss to travel around the territories, talking to different people, women in these territories, trying to make a living, trying to change, trying to construct a future for themselves and their communities.

And I think that kind of resumes what I will… You know, something that I’ve noted during these five years it’s the talent of the Colombian people and the talent of the workforce. It’s also one of the explanations why we have such an interest from Swedish companies to come here and establish here, the talent of the Colombian people. And I think when it comes to learning things from each other, I think Swedes maybe should learn to be a little bit more relaxed, not to plan everything, and that things may turn out great, even though you don’t have 100% control over every step and every detail. And maybe Colombians can learn to have a little bit more structure and a planning horizon.

Finance Colombia: Ambassador, thank you so much for your time. It’s been an honor to speak with you. Best of luck on your future postings and the rest of your career. I’ll certainly endeavor to stay in touch. We appreciate it. And I want to make sure that your staff knows that we want to do a better job of covering Sweden’s activity here in Colombia.

 Sometimes, as journalists, we can be lazy and write about what the US is doing, or what Spain is doing, or what happened next door in Venezuela. But we want to be sure, because we know that there are so many countries like Sweden that, aside from trade and commerce, are doing good works and contributing not just to Colombia, but to the region. And we want to make sure to communicate those things that you all are doing. And again, thank you. I’m tremendously grateful.

Helena Storm: Thank you so much. Thank you.