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 whole architecture of our European security policy,” Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said in an interview in Stockholm on Thursday. “Above all, it puts a lot of pressure on Finland, which has a long border with Russia.”
The two Nordic nations outside the alliance have stepped up joint exercises with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014 and fought a border war between 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 is still below NATO’s 2% target. However, a majority in parliament now expresses support for joining the alliance.
A 40% increase in defense spending by 2025 is a response to the worsening security situation and “is not challenging for anyone,” Hultqvist said. He added that Russia has shown “its readiness to use military force to achieve political goals”, citing events in Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia.
Sweden’s spending movement “can only cause concern”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in October last year when the plan was unveiled. “These invented anti-Russian phobias are largely due to deliberate external pressure on Stockholm, primarily from the North Atlantic Alliance.”
Adhesion pressure
Swedish anti-immigration Democrats joined other opposition parties last month to support the option of joining NATO quickly, if necessary, echoing a policy adopted by Finland. The minority government will respond to the announcement “in a timely manner,” according to Hultqvist.
“What we strive for is stability and predictability,” Hultqvist said. “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 capacity, based on non-alignment in cooperation with other countries. “
Sweden’s defense cooperation with the United States over the past six years has been “very fruitful” and “delivered with stability,” Hultqvist said. Sweden has signed an agreement with the US government in 2018 for Patriot air defense missiles.
Moreover, the change in the US administration is a “stabilizing” factor, Hultqvist said, describing President-elect Joe Biden as “a friend of Sweden”.
“I see what is happening now – that American democratic institutions are working and that Biden is becoming president – as a stabilizing factor. And a stable US is essential to continue the cooperation we have developed so much over the years. “