Sweden’s Ambassador to Singapore Kent Härstedt presented on 15 February his credentials to President Halimah Yacob, the Embassy of Sweden in Singapore informs.
In a statement about the Ambassador’s background, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes that Mr. Kent Härstedt has held several parliamentary and governmental functions.
Before his accreditation to Singapore, Ambassador Härstedt served as the Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. He remains the Swedish Government’s Special Envoy for the Korean Peninsula.
From 1998 to 2018, Ambassador Härstedt was a Member of Parliament and served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees. He was a member of the Swedish Parliamentary Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) from 2010 to 2018 and acted as head of the delegation from 2014 to 2018.
Ambassador Härstedt was the OSCE PA Vice-President from 2015 to 2018, and took part in 19 international election observation missions, leading three of them. Other experiences include serving as a political advisor in various parts of the Swedish Government offices, including the Prime Minister’s Office. Ambassador Härstedt was also the President of Swedish UNICEF and a board member of the Swedish National Institute for Public Health, and the Swedish Institute.
Ambassador Härstedt studied Political Science and Southeast Asian Program at Lund University. He has one son.
