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The period of relative openness in the Soviet Union from the mid 1980s provided an opportunity for Sweden to establish contacts with the neighbouring Baltic Soviet republics. The political situation on both sides did not allow any direct diplomatic relations, and all endeavours had to be taken with utmost care. While modest at first, even programmatically so, these initiatives served to establish links with the independence movements in the Baltic republics. Besides the Local consular branch of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Leningrad, often acting without clear instructions from Stockholm, the Swedish government preferred to channel its first contacts with the Baltic republics through its primary institution for cultural and public diplomacy, the Swedish Institute (SI), later supplanted in this role by the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). In their low profile, these activities can be analysed as early examples of the ‘soft diplomacy’ which have characterized later Baltic-Nordic ‘new regionalism.’. Drawing upon archival materials of the SI, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and interviews with key actors, this article shows how Swedish outreach to the Baltic republics was probed by Swedish diplomacy under considerable uncertainty of the development in the Eastern Baltic Sea region.

Turning towards the inland sea? Swedish ’soft diplomacy‘ towards the Baltic Soviet republics before independence