"In fine rooms and with his field boots on"
There are more sides to working as a diplomat than is generally thought. This year's winner of the Jonas Weiss Grant, Andreas Tuvesson, who is in charge of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Section Office in Tbilisi in Georgia, is an example of a diplomat with broad proficiency who is very much at home in the field.
Jonas Weiss Grant winner Andreas Tuvesson and Inger Wikström (who accepted the honorary distinction in the name of Israeli author Amos Oz). The portrait depicts Jonas Weiss. Photo: Ingrid Palmklint/MFA.
The citation for the award states that he "has responded rapidly in difficult situations in both fine rooms and with his field boots on and has built a broad network of contacts in difficult territory".
In the heat of war and in the face of an imminent Russian invasion, Mr Tuvesson represented Sweden in Georgia and was responsible for arrangements when the Minister for Foreign Affairs and chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers flew in, while trying to organise the orderly exit of Swedish nationals from the arena of war, reporting to Sweden on the situation on the ground and - as the Press Service can add from its point of view - dealing with a company of incoming Swedish journalists.
A section office is not an embassy but a small diplomatic representation for taking care of the most important political tasks. Mr Tuvesson arrived at the beginning of 2008 and set up the Swedish section office.
"Activities at a section office are a bit less regulated, it's good training in diplomatic work," says Mr Tuvesson, adding with an ironic twinkle that it's a bit easier to manage than an embassy.
Of course Mr Tuvesson was not new to the game when he arrived in Tbilisi. He was employed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1999 and had spent time in Brussels and Moscow, as well as a short stint at the Ministry of Defence, before being posted to Tbilisi.
And your worst day at work?
"That was Monday 11 August when it was rumoured that the Russians were going to attack Tbilisi."
Mr Tuvesson thought through the situation and decided that if the Russians didn't take him - and after all, it was 2008 and those days ought to be history - he would ask his partner if she would, and she said yes. Now they are married and expecting a baby.
And what's your dream posting as a diplomat?
"It sounds like a cliché, but I already have it."
"My partner and I said after Moscow that the very place that would interest us was Georgia, and then I was having lunch with someone from human resources one day who took me up on my wish right away, as the ministry was about to open an office there just then."
And when State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Frank Belfrage talked about Mr Tuvesson's work in Georgia, he confirmed that there is an aspiration to turn the section office into a real mission abroad in time - in practice, to make it into an embassy.
