10 Nov 2026
Negotiating with difficult counterparts: Ann Linde
“Our adversaries on some issues might be our friends on others”
Ann Linde
What do you do when your country’s NATO application, with your signature, is suddenly blocked?
I’m honoured to bring you Ann Linde, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2021, discusses how a mid-sized country defends its interests when bigger powers want a return to spheres of influence.
In this episode of Diplomacy at Large, she tells me how Sweden secured its path into NATO after Turkey unexpectedly blocked its application in 2022, including five hours of negotiation in a small, windowless room at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Ann also looks back on chairing the OSCE in a year that began with chaos at the US Capitol and ended with Russia rejecting the European security order, and on negotiating with Sergey Lavrov.
She explains why Sweden became the first country to adopt a feminist foreign policy, and why she believes Europe needs both to rearm and to invest in creative diplomacy.
Ann Linde was Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden from September 2019 to October 2022 and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2021.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Sociology and Economics from Stockholm University (1994).
She was Secretary-General of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (1984–1988), a desk officer at the Government Offices of Sweden (1989–1993) and Political Adviser at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence (1994–1998).
She served as International Secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (2000–2013) and Head of the International Unit of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels (2013–2014).
She was State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs (2014–2016) and Minister for EU Affairs and Trade (2016–2019).
As Foreign Minister, she signed Sweden’s application to join NATO in May 2022.
Since 2023, she has been Special Adviser for Foreign Affairs at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in Brussels.
In this episode, Ann Linde explains:
■ Speaking for a mid-sized country: how a country of just over 10 million must be clear on its goals and its friends, when adversaries on some issues can be partners on others.
■ The power of the chair: how chairing the OSCE or holding the EU presidency gives you a voice beyond speaking for your own country alone.
■ When one veto blocks everything: how a single country held up the EU’s response to Belarus’s fraudulent 2020 election, and for whom such countries are really negotiating.
■ Five hours in Madrid: how Sweden, Finland and Turkey reached the trilateral memorandum that secured NATO invitee status, and the compromise that came out of a coffee break.
■ Negotiating with a party that doesn’t want a deal: what years of talks with Russia taught her, and why sanctions and support for Ukraine became necessary.
■ Feminist foreign policy: the three Rs of rights, representation and resources, higher tariffs on women’s clothing, and why she believes peace agreements last longer when women are at the table.
00:00 Intro
00:26 Early Career and Diplomatic Roots
05:02 Navigating Geopolitical Pressures and OSCE
16:12 Sweden’s Historic NATO Accession
30:43 The Limits of Negotiation with Russia
37:21 Feminist Foreign Policy and Security
44:38 Advice for Diplomats and International Professionals
Ann Linde’s book:
Utrikesminister i förändringens tid (A Foreign Minister in Times of Change), Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2026. Her account of her years as Sweden’s Foreign Minister, from the NATO accession to the OSCE chairmanship, in Swedish.
https://www.albertbonniersforlag.se/bocker/297715/utrikesminister-i-forandringens-tid/ (https://www.albertbonniersforlag.se/bocker/297715/utrikesminister-i-forandringens-tid/)
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Have you ever had to face a difficult negotiation? I’m curious to hear about it.
Antony
Dr Antony Stokes LVO OBE
Host of Diplomacy at Large
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