Complicated talks with Turkey have dampened neither the Swedish government’s desire nor the desire of the Swedish people to join NATO, that country’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström says.
When it comes to joining the alliance, Sweden also sees contributing to the defense of the Baltic States as one of its priorities, Billström, on an official visit to Estonia Tuesday, continued in an interview with ERR’s Epp Ehand, which follows in its entirety. […]
Have you already discussed in Sweden what you are going to do once in NATO, what capabilities you offer and what your priorities are? I’ve heard differing opinions: On the one hand, where the security of the Baltic States would be a priority for Sweden and Finland, and I’ve also heard the counterargument to NATO ie., for God’s sake, we don’t want to go to the aid of the Baltic States if something were to happen there…
The prime minister has very clearly said that we want to have a major presence in the Baltic states, and we are already preparing to participate in the air security mission. We are also talking about participating in the NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battle group(s), which would mean bringing our ground forces to the Baltic States. We have started making plans in which we act as a member of NATO, so that once we do become a member state, then we would immediately be ready to participate on all committees and with all plans. So we look at this in a very positive light.
We believe that we have a special relationship with the Baltic states, for historical, cultural, economic and personal reasons, but above all it stems from the fact that if we and Finland become NATO members, all the countries on the Baltic Sea coast, except Russia, will be NATO countries. This means that we must be interested in the Baltic countries. Läs intervjun
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