Swedish PM Göran Persson has announced that diplomat Jan Kenneth Eliasson is to be Sweden’s Foreign Minister, replacing Laila Freivalds who resigned after heavy criticism in the Swedish press.
She came under fire for the way the Foreign Ministry handled the 2004 tsunami disaster and for her involvement in the closing of a website belonging to Swedish democrats in the wake of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy.
The new Foreign Minister (66) served as Sweden’s Ambassador to Washington, D.C., United States until 2005 June 13 when he was unanimously elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.
