The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs is the highest position below the rank of cabinet minister at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is responsible for Swedish foreign policy.Current ministers:*Carl Bildt Head of Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs.*Ewa Björling as Minister for Foreign Trade...

. , Frank Belfrage is State Secretary.

The title can alternatively be translated as Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs or Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

For historical reasons, this position has a different title in Swedish than the other State Secretaries of the Swedish government; the other posts are termed statssekreterare.

Before 1945, in a situation where the political head of the ministry often changed rapidly, the Secretary General represented the continuous lines in Sweden's foreign policy; and was considered a prestigious step in the diplomatic career.

From 1932, Sweden has experienced a great deal of stability on the post of Foreign Minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)

The Minister for Foreign Affairs is the foreign minister of Sweden and the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.The office was instituted in 1809 as a result of the constitutional Instrument of Government promulgated in the same year. Until 1876 the office was called Prime Minister for Foreign...

, and from 1945 and on the post as State Secretary has increasingly been politized and a subject of replacement in connection with shifts of Foreign Minister. The precise role of the State Secretary has changed from cabinet to cabinet, particularly due to different prime ministers' particular interest and involvement in the shaping of foreign policy.

Notable State Secretaries

• Dag Hammarskjöld
  Dag Hammarskjöld
  Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
  
  
• Leif Belfrage
• Sverker Åström
  Sverker Åström
  Carl Sverker Åström is a former Swedish diplomat.- Youth and education :Sverker Åström was born in Uppsala, the son of the lawyer John Åström and his wife Brita...
  
  
• Pierre Schori
  Pierre Schori
  Jean - Pierre Olov Schori is a Swedish diplomat of Swiss heritage. For many years he was international secretary in the Swedish Socialdemocratic Party and a close assistant to the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme...
  
  
• Erik Boheman
• Christian Günther
  Christian Günther
  Christian Ernst Günther was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in the National Unity Government that was formed as a consequence of the Soviet attack on Finland in November, 1939, and would remain in function until World War II had ended in 1945.Günther, whose father had been Swedish diplomat,...
  
  
• Karl Ivan Westman
  Karl Ivan Westman
  Karl Ivan Westman , Swedish diplomat, 1928–1938 Sweden's Minister in Bern and at the League of Nations, in connection with the Continuation War Sweden's ambassador to Helsinki March 1941 – October 1942, and after World War II Sweden's ambassador to Paris 1947–1956.Westman had, as...
  
  
• Lars-Åke Nilsson
• Leif Leifland
• Jan Eliasson
  Jan Eliasson
  Jan Kenneth Eliasson is a Swedish diplomat and Social Democratic politician.- Biography :Jan Eliasson was born in a working-class family in Gothenburg. He was an AFS exchange student in Indiana, United States, from 1957 to 1958 and was commissioned reserve officer after military training at the...
  
  
• Hans Dahlgren
• Frank Belfrage