My visit should be seen as a new approach to this issue and other issues. We have been given better conditions on these issues, including the one about Dawit Isaak.
Source: Expressen
Maria Malmer Stenergard about the visit to Eritrea
Published Dec 19, 2025 at 10:38 AMUpdated at 12:16
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) has visited Eritrea – the first official visit from Sweden in 32 years.
– The rights of Swedish citizens are a genuine Swedish interest, says Maria Malmer Stenergard at a press conference.
Maria Malmer Stenergard about the visit to Eritrea
Maria Malmer Stenergard holds a press conference where she touches on several of the cases where Swedes are imprisoned abroad. One of those cases is journalist Dawit Isaak. This week, the Foreign Minister visited Eritrea.
– Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned without trial for over 24 years, says the minister.
– My visit should be seen as a new approach to this issue and other issues. We have been given better conditions on these issues, including the one about Dawit Isaak, she continues.
For two days, Malmer Stenergard, together with representatives of the Eritrean government, has discussed regional and bilateral issues.
It is the first visit to Eritrea from a Swedish government representative since 1993, when Sweden recognized Eritrea as a state.
Continued work for Dawit Isaak’s release
Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned without trial for 8,853 days.
– I had the opportunity to express how important it is that Dawit Isaak is released and reunited with his family, says Malmer Stenergard, but adds:
– Talking publicly about everything we do does not benefit the people involved, or their relatives, or the goals we want to achieve, says Maria Malmer Stenergard.
The government has not received any “concrete evidence of life.”
– But our assessment is, based on the contacts we have had and the information we have received, that he is still alive, she says.
Bethlehem Isaac: Expected more
Betlehem Isaak, Dawit Isaak’s daughter, questions what Sweden is actually doing.
– I think this is a stalemate and it is unacceptable and it must end. Sweden is requesting release. Eritrea says yes, he is alive but is delivering no evidence, no results.
Betlehem says that after 24 years of waiting, the family had expected more, that the Foreign Ministry would have received some kind of proof that their father is alive.
They had not received any specific information prior to the press conference, but expect to sit down with the minister shortly.
– We have assumed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received some form of assurance that our father will soon be released. That is what we have assumed. But we do not know everything either. Maria Malmer Stenergard talks about this with quiet diplomacy. But the quiet diplomacy is also directed at us. We do not always find out everything.
Martin Plaut 