The United Kingdom and the Sweden maintain bilateral relations.(also known as Anglo-Swedish relations or British-Swedish relations) () Both countries share common membership of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the Joint Expeditionary Force, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. Bilaterally the two countries have a Double Taxation Convention, a Mutual Defence Agreement, and a Strategic Partnership. Additionally, the United Kingdom holds Observer status of the BEAC, CBSS and AC.

History

Viking Age The earliest wave of migration from present-day Sweden, came from the Viking invasion of Britain in the year 793 when Viking pagans from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) started raiding and settling around the British Isles. Viking raids occurred up and down the largely undefended east coast of England and Scotland during the eighth and ninth centuries. Scandinavian settlements became established over the entire island of Great Britain, the most important of which was Jórvík (now York). Scandinavian influence is evident in the UK even to this day and many millions of Britons have some Scandinavian heritage (especially in Northern England, Eastern England, Scotland and the Shetland Islands).

Another early recording of Swedes in England can be found on the so called England runestones which describe Swedish Vikings taking gold, Danegeld, and tributes in England. Almost all Runestones of this period mentioning England are found in modern day Sweden.

Beowulf One of the earliest mentions of present day Sweden in old English literature comes in the form of the epic poem of Beowulf. The story is set in Scandinavia. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, (Swedish Viking tribe), comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland (Götaland in modern Sweden) and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory.

Colonial era As part of the Continental System, Sweden was forced to declare war on the UK by Napoleon - however the Anglo-Swedish war of 1810–1812 existed only on paper and was entirely bloodless. In the Treaty of Stockholm of 1813, Britain ceded Guadeloupe to Sweden in exchange for Swedish support against Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition and trading rights in major Swedish cities. Swedish rule was brief as the island was ceded to France in the 1814 Treaty of Paris.

Migration During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Swedes emigrated to the United States and the majority of Swedes sailed from Gothenburg to Kingston upon Hull before travelling to Liverpool or Southampton to continue their journey to North America. This created a significant Swedish presence in these cities, so much so that Swedish churches were built to cater to the dynamic communities. Although most emigrants eventually left the ports for the US, some remained in Britain and started their new lives a stage early.

Defence and security The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is a United Kingdom-led multinational military partnership formed for rapid response and expeditionary operations, primarily focused on Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea region. The JEF was officially launched as a NATO initiative at the 2014 NATO Wales Summit when seven countries - Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom - signed a foundational Letter of Intent to establish the force. Sweden joined the JEF in the summer of 2017 alongside Finland, expanding the membership to nine nations. In 2021, Iceland became the tenth member.

Since 2022, Sweden, along with Finland, is in a mutual defence treaty with the United Kingdom. In 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Sweden and granted Sweden security assurances for the duration of its NATO membership process. In July 2022, the United Kingdom fully approved Sweden's application for NATO membership.

Diplomatic missions

Of the United Kingdom Stockholm (Embassy) Gothenburg (Consulate General) Malmö (Consulate General)

Of Sweden London (Embassy), Gibraltar (Consulate General)

The British embassy in North Korea based in Pyongyang is located in the same building as the Swedish embassy.

State visits Two official states visits each between UK and Sweden took place during the reign of Elizabeth II. Former King Gustaf VI Adolf and Queen Louise made a visit to Elizabeth between 28 June to 1 July 1954. In return she made an official visit to Sweden visiting Stockholm and Gothenburg between 8 and 10 June 1956. Later on, the current monarch Carl XVI Gustaf made an official visit to the UK between 8 and 11 July 1975. Elizabeth later returned the visit between 25 and 28 May 1983.

Monarchy

King Carl XVI Gustaf is about 290th in line to the British throne as he is a descendant of Victoria of the United Kingdom through her third son, Prince Arthur. King Charles III, a descendant of Charles XI of Sweden is not in line to the Swedish throne, as the Swedish Act of Succession limits successors to the descendants of Carl XVI Gustaf.

Other noted British members of the Swedish royal family are Christopher O'Neill who holds a British passport, who is married to the king's daughter Princess Madeleine. Their three children; Princess Leonore, Prince Nicolas and Princess Adrienne are entitled to British nationality on descent of their father. Notable previous British members of the Swedish royal family include Welsh-born Princess Lilian, who was the king's aunt-in-law, and his paternal grandmother Princess Margaret of Connaught, the first wife of the king's grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf. King Gustaf VI Adolf continued with the British connection, by marrying the German-born Briton, Louise Mountbatten (a maternal aunt of Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) as his second wife. Carl XVI Gustaf's maternal grandfather, Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was by birth a British prince.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex have represented the British royal family in all the recent royal weddings the king's children of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling, Princess Madeleine and Christopher O'Neill and Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist.

The UK and Sweden have small republican movements, including Republic and Republikanska Föreningen. Which are members of the pan-European Alliance of European Republican Movements, which is based in Stockholm.

Transport

Air transport The UK and Sweden are part of the Single European Sky, hence there are no restrictions between them to operate flights to. Both flag carriers British Airways and SAS between them fly between the capitals’ major airports of London-Heathrow to Stockholm-Arlanda, SAS also flies from Arlanda to Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. BA and SAS also flies between Heathrow and Gothenburg airports, with SAS providing connections to other parts of the country.

Other carriers that fly between the UK and Sweden include regional and low-cost carriers. The regional carriers that fly between UK and Sweden are Sun-Air which flies from Gothenburg to Manchester.

Low-cost carriers are well established between the UK and Sweden, Norwegian flies from London-Gatwick, Edinburgh, Manchester airports to Arlanda and Gatwick to Gothenburg, with connections to other airports in Sweden. easyJet also flies from Gatwick to Arlanda, plus seasonally to Åre Östersund for skiing and winter holidays. Ryanair flies between London-Stansted to Stockholm-Skavsta, Stockholm-Västerås & Gothenburg, with Gothenburg-City, Malmö and Skellefteå airports in the past. Polish airline Enter Air offers seasonal charter flights to Kiruna from eleven British airports.

BA, SAS, Norwegian, easyJet and Ryanair all fly to nearby Copenhagen airport in Denmark from various British airports, which has easy access by the Öresundståg and SJ trains to Scania and Småland.

Marine transport In the past, there were regular ro-ro ferries between Gothenburg and Newcastle, Harwich, Immingham and Hull done by Tor Lines, England-Sweden Line and Scandinavian Seaways using such ferries as the MS Tor Britannia and MS Tor Scandinavia. The plot of the BBC soap Triangle involved on a ferry between the Harwich and Gothenburg route. Popularity of travelling by ferry over the North Sea fell with advent of low-cost carriers and speedy catamaran services between Harwich and Hook of Holland and cross-channel services. Currently commercial port services for freight exist between Harwich and Immingham to Gothenburg.

Culture and media The UK and Sweden are considered cultural superpowers as they have given a large amount of cultural influence in the world despite their small size. Cross-culturally they strongly influence each other due to being Northern European countries with a majority of people being non-practicing Protestants, with a notable immigrant population. Sweden is also influenced due to the country's strong knowledge of English as a second language.

Literature

Major historical and contemporary British authors' literature are popular in Sweden, such as William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, Beatrix Potter, Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien & J. K. Rowling. Due to the high literary knowledge of English language, many popular works are available and read in their original text as well as translated versions. Around ten British authors including Rudyard Kipling, T. S. Eliot, Harold Pinter and the current winner Kazuo Ishiguro have all won the respected Nobel Prize in Literature which is awarded by the Swedish Academy. One British-Irish laureate George Bernard Shaw, used his prize money to help set-up and run the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation, a foundation which helps literate links between the UK and Sweden.

On the other hand, historical Swedish literature is quite small in the UK. The reason is that the UK is much more historically linked to literature in Central and Southern Europe such as France and Italy and knowledge of Swedish language is not widely known. However, in the last thirty years. there has been a big interest in Swedish crime thrillers which put the under category of Scandinavian noir, like Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series, Camilla Läckberg and the famous Stieg Larsson and his Millennium series. Sweden encourages English translations of its literature through an organisation The Swedish-English Literary Translators’ Association which provide grants to assist this.

Press The UK and Sweden are notorious literary readers with high readership of newspapers and magazines. The strength of British news and corporate affairs in Sweden, means that many major publications have a British correspondent including Dagens Nyheter, Göteborgs-Posten & the news agency TT. On the other hand, there aren't any British resident correspondents in Sweden and the nearest is the Financial Times' Nordic correspondent who is based in Norway. British media is more highly reliant on special roving correspondents and the TT news agency to give them the news.

Due to small size of the local market and the high level of literacy of English, many British magazines in a wide range of subjects are available in Swedish newsstands like Pressbyrån. On the other hand, it is very difficult to purchase Swedish publications in the UK due to near zero knowledge of the Swedish language. The only regular publication of a Swedish language magazine is the Swedish Church's quarterly magazine Kyrkobladet .