July 27, 2020
No. 157
Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaushieh Joseph Wu on July 27 represented President Tsai Ing-wen in conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon upon Sven Håkan Oskar Jevrell, Representative of the Swedish Trade and Invest Council, in recognition of his efforts and contributions to advancing Taiwan-Sweden relations during his tenure in Taiwan. More than 80 people attended the ceremony, including newly appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung-kwang Tien, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Li-jey Tsao, other senior MOFA officials, members of the Diplomatic Corps, members of the Taiwanese and Swedish business communities, and Swedish expatriates in Taiwan.
Speaking at the event, Minister Wu praised Representative Jevrell for being a true friend of Taiwan and lauded his remarkable achievements in bolstering bilateral exchanges between Taiwan and Sweden during his two-year tenure. He said that thanks to Representative Jevrell’s assistance, Sweden had become the first European country to join the Global Cooperation and Training Framework and had worked closely with Taiwan and other like-minded partners to enhance international cooperation and support Taiwan’s international participation. Minister Wu said he was confident bilateral relations between Taiwan and Sweden will continue to grow based on the foundation established by Representative Jevrell.
Representative Jevrell said he was deeply honored to receive the award and thanked Minister Wu, MOFA, and other government agencies, as well as friends from all sectors of Taiwan, for their support and assistance over the past two years. He emphasized that in addition to seeing significant growth in cooperation on commerce and trade, education, and technology since 2019, what truly connects Taiwan and Sweden are their shared values of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Praising Taiwan for being a shining democracy in Asia, Representative Jevrell stressed that Sweden will continue to work with Taiwan to safeguard these core values. He added that Taiwan and Sweden are value-based partners and that he will remain a steadfast friend of Taiwan.
Representative Jevrell is a seasoned public servant. He previously served as Sweden’s Ambassador to Singapore (and concurrently Brunei), State Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, and Political Advisor at the Prime Minister’s Office. He assumed his post as Representative to Taiwan in September 2018 and is scheduled to return to Sweden in August this year. (E)