Brigadier General (ret.) Anders Löfberg was appointed Knight in the French Order of Merit, Ordre National du Mérite. Löfberg was previously head of the Special Forces Command during the period when Sweden participated in the French-led special forces operation Task Force Takuba in Mali. In June 2022, then Army Chief Major General Karl Engelbrektson was appointed Commander in the same order, also by General Pierre Schill. Yesterday marked the second visit by the French Army Chief to Sweden in just over a year, which the French ambassador explained as a result of the increasingly close defence cooperation between the countries.
A few months after Major General Engelbrektson's appointment, in September 2022, Navy Chief Ewa Skoog Haslum and Vice Admiral Jonas Haggren were appointed Commanders in the same order. At the time of the appointment, Vice Admiral Haggren was head of the Joint Staff and has been, since July this year, Sweden's military representative to NATO and the EU in Brussels.
In addition to Löfberg's appointment, Colonel Per Åkerblom was awarded the National Defence Gold Medal and Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Sandström the Bronze Medal, also by Army Chief General Pierre Schill. Lieutenant General Michael Claesson, head of the Defence Staff, warmly congratulated the three on their well-deserved honours and also thanked the French Armed Forces "for very good cooperation" via social media.