International Relations: Sweden to close more embassies

The Swedish Foreign Ministry is to close four more of its embassies, according to a report on radio Sweden.

It quoted an unconfirmed report as saying that the embassies to be closed are the ones in Vientiane in Laos, Manila in the Philippines, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Luanda in Angola.

The closures are more to do with financial considerations than political reasons, according to a member of the Swedish Parliament.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry need to reorganise its budget to accommodate new embassies being built in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.

Recently the Swedish government decided to phase out Sweden's embassies in Nicaragua and Botswana and the Swedish consulates-general in Gdansk of Poland and Phuket of Thailand.