It is inconceivable that NATO would not react if Sweden is exposed to military threats during the accession phase. This is what the defense alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tells TV4 Nyheterna at the security conference in Munich.
– Sweden is in a much better security policy situation now than before they applied. Sweden is integrated into our military structures and into our civil and military cooperation.
Met Erdogan
He came to the security conference in Munich directly from Turkey where he met both President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu. Partly to offer support after the earthquake, and partly to push for the country to approve Sweden’s membership in NATO, preferably at the same time as Finland’s. But the Turks are still against recognizing Sweden, according to Stoltenberg. Something that they also made clear at the meetings in Ankara.
He doesn’t want to go into assessing whether he heard any nuanced differences compared to before.
– My message was that Sweden and Finland have done what they are supposed to, says Stoltenberg.
Is safer
He returns to the fact that Sweden, regardless of whether Finland joins NATO first, is safer in terms of security policy than before the application for membership in NATO was submitted in May last year.
– Sweden is closely integrated into NATO’s military and civilian structures and is becoming more and more so. NATO exercises a lot in the area and Sweden has received bilateral security guarantees from countries such as the USA, Great Britain and other major NATO countries. It is not that nothing has happened, says Stoltenberg.