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Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel’s visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina did not get off to the smoothest of starts when their plane malfunctioned and the first day of their three day trip had to be cancelled! Thanks to some quick thinking and planning, the rest of the schedule was reorganised and the couple took on a packed itinerary to make sure they could fit everything in. A large part of their visit involved learning about the complex and often sombre history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Balkan nation which declared independence from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s: they were given a guided tour of the capital, Sarajevo, where they saw the diversity of the country through visits to a Serbian Orthodox church, a mosque, a synagogue and a Catholic cathedral; they explored a bunker built by divisive Yugoslavian President Tito; and they visited a museum dedicated to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 and the experiences of children during the Bosnian War. But they also looked at the vibrant nation Bosnia and Herzegovina has become and its strong links with Sweden. They learned about collaborations between the two countries across diverse sectors from IT and furniture manufacture to sustainable architecture and de-mining! Despite the bumpy start, the rest of the trip went off without a hitch and was no doubt appreciated by the more than 60,000 Bosnians living in Sweden today. 

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Visits between Denmark and Sweden are always particularly special. As well as being neighbours, Denmark is Sweden’s fifth largest export market and fourth largest import market. On a personal level, Crown Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Frederik are second cousins and close friends; Victoria was chosen as godparent to Frederik’s heir Christian while Mary and Frederik were respectively appointed as godparents to Victoria and Daniel’s children Estelle and Oscar. Naturally the visit therefore centred around the economic links between the two nations, with opportunities for private catch ups at the Crown Princely family’s home. In their packed schedule they were accompanied by their Danish royal counterparts as they visited the Danish Industry Summit on green business, the Swedish-Danish Business Forum which builds modern and sustainable business links between the two Scandinavian nations, and the Tech BBQ innovation conference based on Nordic values. The Crown Princess summed up the relations between the two countries during a speech at an event.” Sweden and Denmark are not only neighbours. We are family. Like all families, there is a measure of competition between us. And so there should be! We track each other. We learn from each other. But above all, we are strong together.”

In May, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her husband Daniel travelled to Vietnam to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomacy between the two nations. In keeping with the purpose of the visit, they met a score of the most powerful figures in the country from the President to the Speaker of the National Assembly and experienced some of Vietnam’s cultural highlights, including a visit to home of Vietnam’s first President Ho Chi Minh and an informal lunch celebrating the capital’s street food. Perhaps the centre piece of the visit was the Crown Princess’s opening speech at the Sweden-Vietnam Business Summit celebrating the opportunities for trade and collaboration between the two countries. The rest of the itinerary focused on the couple’s shared interests- including young people, healthy lifestyles, and sustainability- and saw them meet people from across Vietnamese society. Amongst their activities was a meeting with prominent Vietnamese women, an early morning exercise class, a meeting with young entrepreneurs, and a boat trip on the Saigon River complete with briefings on water pollution. The Crown Princess was an instant hit with the local people; during a visit to a craft project in her capacity as a UN Ambassador she received a surprise proposal from a local craftsman- complete with a hand made ring!

Not long after her working visit to New York City and her day trip to France, Crown Princess Victoria was back on the road with her husband Daniel for a tour of Jordan and Lebanon. The trip dovetailed with Victoria’s role as UN Ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals, featuring everything from a meeting with high level directors of UN agencies to the delivery of the keynote speech at a conference on the Goals. The visit also gave the couple the opportunity to strengthen links between Sweden and the two nations. Sweden has invested more time and money in the Syrian refugee crisis than most other European nations and both Jordan and Lebanon have accepted the bulk of refugees fleeing Syria. Victoria and Daniel were able to see the impact on the ground; in Jordan they visited a school in Al Baq’a refugee camp in Jordan and discussed the issue with the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs while in Lebanon they visited the Burj al Barajneh camp where a Swedish performance had Victoria in tears. Alongside learning about the challenges facing the region, they were also able to see the beauty of their host countries. Victoria has been completing treks through each of Sweden’s provinces so she was particularly delighted to have the chance to see Jordan’s beauty first hand through a hike on the 65 mile Jordan Trail. They visited the citadel of Amman, the baptismal site of Jesus, and received a walking tour of Beirut. As a result both royals spoke of the tragedy of the Syrian refugee crisis, but also of the beauty and warmth of Jordan and Lebanon. 

In January 2016 Crown Princess Victoria was appointed as an ambassador for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on marine sustainability. She has travelled the world as part of this role and in September 2018 she travelled to New York City to celebrate their progress and discuss the future with fellow UN representatives. Her busy itinerary gave her plenty of opportunities to demonstrate her diplomatic skills, meeting with everyone from the Deputy Mayor to the UN Secretary General to Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah. The UN took up most of the Crown Princess’s schedule as she attended meetings with fellow ambassadors, a forum with private sector representatives, and a seminar on UNICEF’s youth lead initiative Youth 2030, but she also took the time to mark Swedish-American relations: she visited Aska, a restaurant headed up by a Swedish chef with a reputation for sustainability; toured the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce; and visited the Nobel Monument in honour of Swedish Albert Nobel alongside two American Nobel Laureates from 2017. Perhaps the most personally significant moment was her attendance at a memorial for former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who passed away earlier that year and was a personal friend to the Swedish royals for many years. The future Queen could even be seen shedding a tear for her late friend. Royals have been critical to the history of the UN and Victoria is the latest in a long line of regal ambassadors. This was perfectly demonstrated in photographs of her warmly greeting fellow royals and close friends, including Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, the Netherlands’ Princess Mabel and her daughter’s godfather, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. 

Victoria took a break from overseas visits towards the end of her pregnancy with son Oscar but in December 2016 she visited Italy with husband Daniel for her first tour in over a year. They took their 9 month old son with them for the visit, which focused on health, cultural issues, and the promotion of Swedish businesses. `During the visit Victoria flexed her diplomatic muscles as she met with officials, visited the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, and attended a seminar on women in poverty. But promoting Swedish-Italian relations was top on the agenda. The couple saw how Sweden and Italy collaborate in business (with a visit to Swedish stores and restaurants as well as the Volvo Group), health (touring a hospital which receives equipment from a Swedish company and has collaborated with the Karolinska Hospital, where Victoria was born), and academia (centring on the Swedish Institute in Rome which was founded by Victoria’s great-grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf). They even celebrated Sweden’s impact on religion with a visit to the Bridgettine Sisters, an order founded using a donation from 14th Century Swedish King Magnus and Queen Blanche. Victoria has met the order’s Mother Tekla many times before and the elderly nun greeted her with an enthusiastic hug, bringing tears to Victoria’s eyes. This enthusiasm and hospitality spread to the rest of the tour, which was deemed a great success by the media and the public, as the Italian diplomats went out of their way to accommodate the Crown Princess Couple, even hosting a St Lucia evening in the official residence. 

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