His Excellency Mr. Gbehzohngar Milton Findley, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Liberia, accompanied by the Assistant Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Hon. Abratha P. Doe, has presented Liberia’s case at the 2018 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development in Stockholm, Sweden.

According to a Foreign Ministry release, this year’s forum is building on the high-level Meeting on Peace-building and Sustaining Peace and the conclusions of the recent report, Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict.

The 2018 Stockholm Forum was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Foreign Minister Findley also participated in three Panel discussions as a panelist on the Urgency and Logic of Investing in Violent Conflict Prevention; Managing Violent Conflict Risks at the National, Regional and Global Levels; and Dialogue in a Multipolar World: Politics, Diplomacy and the Role of Women.

The Dean of the Cabinet further held bilateral meetings with the Foreign Minister of Sweden, H.E. Madam Margot Wallström; the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), representatives from the G7+ Secretariat, among others.

In each of those meetings, Foreign Minister Findley, who is the nation’s top diplomat, made the case for Liberia as it relates to H.E. President George Manneh Weah’s government’s “pro-poor agenda.”

Minister Findley mainly provided explanations concerning Liberia’s experiences as it relates to its recent peaceful transfer of political power from one administration to another and the end of operations of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

It was the first meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Liberia.

In further discussions, Minister Findley made specific emphasis on youth development and asked his Swedish counterpart to give more support in the area of youth development.

According to Hon. Abratha P. Doe, who accompanied the Foreign Minister, the Swedish Government pledged their continued commitments to government and people of Liberia.

Sweden is concerned about peace and security, too, even though they heavily support gender-based issues.