Sweden – Expressen, Apr. 30, 2026
After decades of frosty relations and a deadlock over Dawit Isaak, Sweden and Eritrea are attempting to move closer to one another.
Martin Schibbye and Donald Boström traveled to Asmara to take the temperature following Stenergard’s visit to the country.
“She is a brave minister, yours,” says the country’s foreign minister, Osman Saleh.
The question doesn’t even have time to be asked. Osman Saleh already knows what the two Swedish journalists want to talk about.
“Dawit Isaak,” he says out loud, just as he sits down in the enormous dark blue armchair in his office in central Asmara.
The armchair is so wide that it could easily fit two ministers.
“Dawit was the first thing your foreign minister brought up when we met in New York,” he continues.
“She pressed quite hard”
Osman Saleh says “she pressed quite hard” when urging Eritrea to release Dawit on humanitarian grounds.
“Then I said that rather than ‘the sticky issue,’ I would prefer we talk about how we can develop the relationship between our countries.”
According to Saleh, Maria Malmer Stenergard accepted that reasoning. He invited her to Eritrea. She accepted. The rest is now Swedish foreign policy history.
“It was good, acceptable”
One idea at the time was that she would meet the president. But he describes the Swedish visit in December as more courteous and introductory than negotiative. As he puts it, it was primarily a welcome meeting—a fresh start.
“It was general,” he says. “Nothing concrete. We sat here in this room.”
Asked how Eritrea evaluates the visit, he responds without grand words that it was not a breakthrough but a step in the “right direction.”
“We see it as normal. It was good, it was acceptable.”
It is a typical Osman Saleh response: toned down, deliberately understated. After all, a meeting with a Swedish counterpart is anything but routine.
Building a relationship
“I can’t say that anything will happen. We are still at the beginning of building a relationship between Sweden and Eritrea,” he continues. “If Sweden also wants to build that relationship, that’s good. Then we are on the right path.”
It is also clear that the Dawit Isaak issue still lingers in the background of relations and discussions with Sweden. But while Stenergard “pressed hard” for his release in New York, it does not seem to have dominated discussions during her visit to Asmara.
Saleh appears to think that was wise, emphasizing that it is better to talk about the future of the relationship than to get stuck on “the sensitive issue.” This line is echoed in several conversations with Eritrean representatives: a desire not to let “a single issue” define the entire relationship with Sweden.
Laughter and jokes
According to Saleh, the highlight of Stenergard’s visit was an informal “business dinner” attended by several Eritrean ministers and members of his staff. There was laughter and joking, he says with a broad smile.
“The atmosphere was very positive.”
Asked whether any concrete projects were established—investments, programs, or official initiatives—he shakes his head.
