Only hours after taking office on Oct. 3, new Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven made his first major foreign policy announcement, and it could hardly have been more spectacular. In his inaugural speech to the Swedish parliament, the Social Democrat said that “the conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution” and that “a two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine.” Should Löfven’s declaration — which requires only a decision by his minority government and does not need to go to a parliamentary vote — become reality, Sweden would become the first country to recognize Palestine while a member of the European Union.

Responses from Israel and the United States were swift and predictable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Sweden’s “unilateral” decision would harm the peace process, and a former Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, claimed that the Social Democrats were “anti-Israel” and that the influx of Muslim immigrants to Sweden in recent years influenced the new administration’s position. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki claimed that while the U.S. supported Palestinian statehood, “We believe international recognition of a Palestinian state is premature.”

When told of the U.S. response, Löfven said that recognition of Palestine was an important component for driving discussions forward and that Sweden’s new position should hardly have come as a surprise. The new Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström dismissed any suggestion of an anti-Israel sentiment in Sweden and was pointed in her response to the U.S. critique, saying, “The USA doesn’t decide our policy.”

With this proclamation, the new administration in Stockholm has achieved two things. First, Löfven has broken with the previous, conservative administration’s foreign policy, spearheaded by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. Widely recognized as a staunch and loyal U.S. ally, Bildt wrote a New York Times op-ed giving de facto support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and he did little during his eight years in office to rub the United States the wrong way. When it came to Israel, he was criticized in Sweden for his reluctance to offer a categorical condemnation of the massive loss of civilian life in Gaza as the result of Israeli bombardment. By declaring its intention to recognize Palestine, the new administration has demonstrated a willingness, right off of the bat, to buck the United States. In addition to the position on Palestine, Löfven announced that Sweden would not seek membership in NATO.