Staffan Herrström, Swedish ambassador to Thailand, is a man of vision.
With a distinguished career that has included stints as a political adviser and print journalist, along with postings in Tanzania, Vietnam and Poland, the veteran envoy does not hesitate to speak his mind.
In Thailand for under a year, his long term goal is to see that when his term is over, Sweden should be "well known, appreciated and a commercially successful friend and partner to a democratic Thailand".
Like other issues close to his heart, Herrström is upfront about his staunch support for women's rights.
He duly credits his mother for this.
"My mother was a delegate to the Church congress in 1958 when women finally received the right to become priests," he said. "Now we even have a female archbishop, but then almost 60 years ago this decision was very controversial and many men questioned and obstructed it for a long time. Over the years I have realised that my mother's engagement in this matter, taking a clear stand and also being active in the women's movement, probably influenced me much more than I realised when I was young."
The Swedish envoy grew up in an era when men dominated politics, while women to a large extent, were homemakers. As he grew older and became politically active, he realised women should have equal rights to enable society to develop to its full potential.
Today Swedish women enjoy the same rights as men. However, this is far from true in many other countries where lack of basic rights for females is still widely practised.
Having two daughters, aged 20 and 18, makes him shudder at the thought that their chances in life would be more limited than young men of their same age because of their gender.
Ambassador Herrström finds immense pride working in, what he termed, "a feminist government".
"Women work two-thirds of the world's total working hours but earn only a tenth of the world income. Women make up half of the world's population, yet represent 70% of the world's poor. Only one in five parliamentarians in the world is a woman. And as much as one in three women in the world is physically abused in their lifetime.
"A feminist foreign policy places these and other similar issues at the core of decision making, focusing on rights, representation and resources for women. I feel proud to be part of that undertaking," he said.
The Swedish emissary said gender equality is one of the cornerstones of Swedish society. There is literally nothing a Swedish women is not allowed to do today, he said, and women are treated no differently than their male compatriots both at work and home.
Besides sharing equal responsibilities at home, he said, men are also allowed maternity leave to enable them to share the duties of being a father. In a way gender equality has enabled Swedish families to grow closer as parents share equal responsibilities with the children.
Splitting parental duties from the time the child is born enables the father to become more engaged in the daily welfare of his offspring as he grows older.
Additionally, he said, acceptance towards gender-based domestic violence in the country has also decreased, thanks Swedish government making sure that women had rights and were protected against violence. The eventual aim is to see the acceptance rate for the crime to eventually reach zero, he remarked.
One of the major drives of change in Sweden was the women's movement, which was very vocal in promoting and playing an instrumental role in implementing a child care system which is high quality, yet affordable. Ambassador Herrström remarked that in the 1970s, child care and parental leave for men was non-existent, and took two decades to accomplish what they have today.
Ambassador Herrström acknowledged that his approach towards fatherhood would have been very different had he not had the experience of bonding with his infant daughter during his parental leave after her birth.
The two months he spent with his eldest daughter Sofia helped to develop a closer bond between father and daughter, teaching him that fatherhood meant patience and sacrifice.
He also continues to support the HeForShe campaign, a movement for gender equality which was originally conceived as a struggle led only by women for women.
Explaining why he decided to get involved, he said: "Because we men need to speak out and stand up for gender equality. I am in favour of equal rights and against gender-based violence. It is our responsibility to carry this message to the world. This is also a win-win situation for both women and men. This is what the HeForShe-campaign is all about."
The ambassador concluded the interview by sharing his thoughts on whether it was appropriate for ambassadors in Thailand to voice their opinion on the host country's political situation, remarking: "Global norms about human rights and democracy are valid and important for all countries. Sweden is a member of the European Union, and it is not uncommon that we exp