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Exclusive | EU chief for Asia-Pacific set to leave role after China summit, sources say

Niclas Kvarnström will return to Sweden to take up a senior position in the government, according to people familiar with the situation

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Niclas Kvarnström is said to be leaving his role as managing director for Asia and the Pacific in the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic corps. Photo: Handout
Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
The European Union’s top official for Asia is to leave his role after a summit with China next week to take up a post in Sweden, the Post has learned.
Niclas Kvarnström, managing director for Asia and the Pacific in the European External Action Service, the bloc’s diplomatic corps, is returning to his homeland for a senior position in the government there, according to nine people familiar with the situation.
A summit in Beijing on July 24 will be his last official engagement in the role, a fitting finale for a diplomat who has helped steer the EU through ever-trickier ties with China. A search will then begin for his successor, with deputy managing director Paola Pampaloni set to take the helm on an interim basis.
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Kvarnström, a fluent Chinese speaker, has become a respected and influential figure over two years working in the top Asia job in Brussels, before which he was head of the Asia-Pacific department of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There, he played a key role in organising the EU’s first Indo-Pacific summit in Stockholm in 2023. Another such summit is planned for November under the steer of the EEAS with assistance from the Danish government, which is the holder of the rotating EU presidency.

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One insider said the departure was “quite sudden”, while several suggested that the Swede would leave a big hole in the EU’s small China policymaking machine, despite his relatively short stint there.

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