Ambassador (ret.) Sune Danielsson

Senior Expert Trainer, Strategic Trade Control


Ambassador Danielsson served as Head of Secretariat of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Control for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies for ten years. He was elected unanimously to this post in June 2002 and re-elected in December 2005 and in December 2009. He resigned from that position in June 2012 after completing his last mandate.

He has occupied a number of functions in the Swedish Foreign Service. From 1992 to 1997 he was the first Swedish Ambassador to Croatia and he also de facto covered Bosnia and Hercegovina from 1992 to 1996. During this time his responsibilities included liaison with the UN operations in former Yugoslavia, refugees and humanitarian assistance. Before this, he served as Assistant Under-Secretary for Human Rights, Treaties and Public Law in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. As Counsellor at the Swedish Mission to the UN in New York 1983 to 1987 he worked with matters relating to disarmament, arms control and international security. Before this he was responsible for outer space matters in the Swedish Foreign Ministry. His other postings include the Swedish Embassies in Ankara and London in the 1970s.

During the Swedish Presidency of the EU in 2001 he was appointed Ambassador in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Special Negotiator on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) with the task of coordinating and representing the European Union at the United Nations Conference on SALW and in the negotiations on the United Nations Firearms Protocol. From 1998 to 2000 he was seconded to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna to develop a strategy for capacity-building and training. Before being elected to the post as Head of the Wassenaar Arrangement Secretariat he worked in the European Commission on issues relating to conflict prevention and crisis management in Directorate General RELEX.

Ambassador Danielsson works as an independent consultant with governments, international organisations and industry promoting strategic trade controls and non- proliferation of sensitive products. In this capacity he has provided expert advice in the framework of relevant bilateral and regional programs of the US and the EU, in particular in South East Asia and the Caribbean, relating to the control of exports of arms and dual-use goods and technology.