This year’s Swedish security policy seminar will meet in an exceptionally warlike atmosphere, writes our Nordic correspondent Pirjo Auvinen.
SÄLEN As I write this in Sälen’s tunturi hotel, the chairman of Sweden’s defense policy report is on the TV screen Hans Wallmark gives a speech in which the word war is thrown around.
The same theme has been repeated at the security conference several times. Government Minister of Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin startled with his directness. He urged the Swedes to prepare for war. The commander of the Swedish Defense Forces also had the same message With Micael Bydén.
Swedes’ image of modern Russia is barren.
War talk sounded harsh to Finnish ears. Prime minister by Ulf Kristersson according to this, it is not about inciting hysteria or intimidation, but about transparency. According to the Prime Minister, the situation must be discussed as it is.
Kristersson said that he and his ministers had recently been guests of the Finnish government. He had the impression that the picture of the security policy environment was very similar in Helsinki as well.
In Sälen’s corridor speeches, the ministers’ war speeches have also been interpreted as incitement on the side of violence. The government’s concern may be that the Swedes, who have lived in peacetime for hundreds of years, do not want to strengthen their awareness of the crisis. According to another interpretation, war talk is based on large investments in the Swedish defense forces.
Swedish soldiers to protect Latvia
Sweden’s NATO membership is still stuck in Turkey and Hungary. Still, the government’s NATO preparations are progressing like turbo speed.
According to Prime Minister Kristersson, Sweden is ready to send a small battalion, i.e. 500–1,000 soldiers, to protect Latvia as soon as Sweden’s NATO membership is confirmed. Also the foreign minister With Tobias Billström there were a lot of plans about what kind of NATO member Sweden would become and what everything Sweden would participate in as a NATO member.
The Swedish ministers therefore do not doubt for a moment that membership will take place. Having learned from the past, they no longer tell possible schedules. Not, for example, that Sweden would participate in NATO’s 75th anniversary celebrations, which will be celebrated in April in Washington, USA.
Sweden no longer seeks to influence the countries holding back, i.e. Turkey and Hungary. Foreign Minister Billström said that he had been in contact with the US Foreign Minister on Thursday to Anthony Blinkenwho was leaving for Turkey and the Middle East.
Prime Minister Kristersson, on the other hand, had spoken to the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg with last yesterday Sunday.
In any case, the Swedish government cannot be blamed for the lack of NATO motivation.