Ambassador Jonas Hafström Bio

Prior to his present appointment, he was Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand, also accredited to Laos, Cambodia and  Burma /Myanmar - a position he had held since 2004.

He was previously Deputy Director for Consular Affairs and Civil Law at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm from 2000 to 2004.

Jonas Hafström joined the Foreign Service in 1979. Shortly after, he worked as the Press Secretary to the Minister of Justice 1979-1981.

He was first posted as First Secretary to the Embassy in Teheran from 1982-1984. He then spent the following two years as First Secretary at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC.

From 1987 to 1991, he was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Moderate Party, Mr. Carl Bildt. When Carl Bildt became Prime Minister of Sweden in 1991, Jonas Hafström was  appointed Assistant Under-Secretary/Foreign Policy Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office from 1991 to 1994.

He served as Head of the International Bureau of the Moderate Party, and subsequently as foreign policy advisor to the Chairman of the Moderate Party, Mr. Carl Bildt,  from 1994 to 2000.

Ambassador Hafström also served as a member of the Swedish Defense Committee 1998-99.

Born in 1948, Jonas Hafström holds a degree in law and is a graduate of the University of Lund. During his college years, he was the Chairman of the student body.  He then spent the following two and a half years as District Clerk at the District Court in Nyköping.

Jonas Hafström is a Non-Commissioned Reserve Captain of the Swedish Army and served as  ADC to the Swedish Commanding Officer, UN Peace Keeping Operations in the Middle East in 1977.

He received the “Jonas Weiss Memorial Award” in 2005 and The Seraphim Medal by His Majesty the King in 2008.

He and his wife Eva have three children.