Photographer: Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty Images
Sweden’s top defense official said staying out of NATO remains the best security option for the country, even with an increasingly assertive Russia.
A Swedish application for NATO membership would “affect the entire security policy architecture in our part of Europe,” Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said in an interview in Stockholm on Thursday. “Above all, it puts very strong pressure on Finland, which has a long border with Russia.”
The two Nordic nations outside the alliance have been ramping 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 falls short of NATO’s 2% target. Nevertheless, a majority in parliament is now expressing support for joining the alliance.
A 40% increase in defense spending through 2025 is in response to the deteriorating security situation and “is not provocative to anyone,” said Hultqvist. He added that Russia has shown “willingness to use military force to achieve political goals”, citing events in Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia.
The Swedish spending movement “can only cause concern”, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last October when the plan was revealed. “These fabricated anti-Russian phobias are in no small part the result of deliberate outside pressure on Stockholm, mainly from the North Atlantic alliance.”
Busy to join
Sweden’s anti-immigration Democrats joined the other opposition parties last month to support the ability to join NATO quickly if necessary, following a policy of Finland. The minority government will respond to the announcement “in due course”, according to Hultqvist.
“What we strive for is stability and predictability,” said Hultqvist. “That is why we believe that the fundamental doctrines of security policy should not be changed. And that is why we have chosen to build national military capabilities, based on non-alignment in cooperation with other countries. “
Sweden’s defense cooperation with the US over the past six years has been “very fruitful” and has been “delivered steadily,” said Hultqvist. Sweden signed a deal with the US government for Patriot air defense missiles in 2018.
In addition, the change in the US administration is a “stabilizing” factor, said Hultqvist, who described President-elect Joe Biden as “a friend of Sweden.”
“I see what is happening now – that the US democratic institutions are functioning and that Biden becomes president – as a stabilizing factor. And a stable US is essential to continue the partnership we have developed so successfully over the years. “