Photographer: Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty Images
Sweden’s top defense official has said he remains outside NATO, the best security option for the country, even with an increasingly assertive Russia.
A Swedish application for membership of NATO would “affect the entire security policy architecture in our part of Europe,” Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said in Stockholm on Thursday. “Above all, it puts a lot of strong pressure on Finland, which has a long border with Russia.”
The two Nordic countries outside the alliance have stepped up joint exercises with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supported a war on the border of the two former allies.
While Swedish lawmakers last month supported the largest increase in military spending in 70 years, spending as a percentage of gross domestic product still does not fall below NATO’s target of 2%. Nevertheless, the majority in parliament now supports the alliance.
A 40% increase in defense by 2025 is a response to the deteriorating security situation and is not challenging for anyone, Hultqvist said. He added that Russia had shown “its readiness to use military force to achieve political goals”, citing events in Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said Sweden’s spending “could not help but be worrying”. said last October when the plan was launched. “These fabricated anti-Russia phobias are due to the deliberate external pressure on Stockholm, mainly by the North Atlantic Alliance.”
Press to join
The anti-immigration Swedish Democrats joined the other opposition parties last month to support the option to join NATO quickly, if necessary, which accepts Finland’s policy. According to Hultqvist, the minority government will respond “in due course” to the announcement.
“What we strive for is stability and predictability,” Hultqvist said. “That is why we believe that the fundamental doctrines on security policy should not change. And that is why we have chosen to build national military capability based on non-alignment in cooperation with other countries. ”
Sweden’s defense co-operation with the US over the past six years has been ‘very fruitful’ and ‘delivered with stability’, Hultqvist said. Sweden signed an agreement with the US government in 2018 for Patriot air defense missiles.
On top of that, the change in the US government is a ‘stabilizing’ factor, Hultqvist said and pres. Joe Biden, president, described as a friend of Sweden. ‘
‘I see what’s happening now – that American democratic institutions are functioning and that Biden is becoming president – a stabilizing factor. And a stable US is essential to continue the cooperation we have developed so successfully over the years. ”