På måndag 8. juli 2024 inleder de nya rekryterna sin tjänstgöring vid Försvarsmaktens och Gränsbevakningsväsendets truppförband. I kontingent 2/24 börjar cirka 12 000 nya rekryter, varav cirka 600 kvinnor, sin tjänstgöring.

Av dem som nu inleder tjänstgöringen börjar omkring 10 000 vid Arméns truppförband. Cirka 1 600 värnpliktiga inleder sin militära karriär vid Marinen. De övriga fördelar sig på Gränsbevakningens och Flygvapnets truppförband. De flesta svenskspråkiga rekryter inleder tjänstgöringen vid Nylands brigad.

Det finns över 660 olika uppgifter inom militärtjänstgöringen, och varje rekryt kan hitta en uppgift som motsvarar hens kunnande och funktionsförmåga. Dessutom utvecklas viktiga civila färdigheter i tjänstgöringen, såsom färdigheter att fungera i grupp och som ledare. Läs artikel

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc founded in 2001, is increasingly positioning itself as a counterbalance to Western influence in Eurasia. At its annual meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, the organization’s leaders, particularly Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, emphasized the group’s growing importance in reshaping the global order.[…]

President Xi Jinping’s call to resist “external meddling” underscores the SCO’s primary objective of reducing Western influence in the region. His metaphor of “small yards with high fences” likely alludes to what the bloc perceives as Western attempts to isolate or contain SCO member states. Xi’s emphasis on safeguarding the “right to development” suggests a narrative that positions the SCO as a guardian of its members’ sovereign interests against external pressures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a new set of Eurasian collective security treaties marks a bold attempt to reshape the region’s security architecture. While details remain limited, Putin’s suggestion that this system should be open to all countries on the continent, including NATO members, while aiming to remove external military presence (particularly American) from Eurasia, reveals Russia’s ambition to diminish U.S. influence in the region. Läs artikel

The president insisted that his campaign would continue and that he was the best candidate for the job in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday.

Rejecting calls for him to step aside, Biden defended his determination to remain in the race by using one of his favorite foreign policy talking points, the conceit that America is the indispensable or essential nation. Building on the idea expressed by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright a quarter century ago, the president said, “You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Not — and that’s not hy — sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world. Madeleine Albright was right.”

Later in the interview, Biden also maintained that there was no one else who could lead as well as he could. He asked Stephanopoulos, “who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re — we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna — who’s gonna do that? Who has that reach?” Läs artikel

Just when heads of Western military alliance Nato will be meeting in a summit from July 9 to 11 in Washington next week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia on July 8-9. […]

The most unmistakable message from the Modi-Putin summit will be that Russia is not isolated in the face of a united West. Days before the Nato Summit and meeting Modi, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has met Putin in Moscow in a show of rare solidarity because Hungary is a Nato member. Orban’s visit has been heavily criticised by EU leaders. Modi’s visit could be another occasion for Russia to project the failure of the West to isolate it. Läs artikel

[…] Taken together, these challenges cast a long shadow over the future of the Atlantic Alliance. The U.S., the linchpin of NATO, is increasingly focused on the rise of China and the complex security challenges of the Indo-Pacific region. This shift in focus could lead to a decreased American commitment to European security, further straining the Alliance’s cohesion.

In and of themselves, these challenges could well prove fatal to NATO. But I would argue that the inevitable demise of the Alliance has even deeper roots — roots having to do with the shift in polarity over the past decade or so.

NATO was conceived in a bipolar world to address the reality of superpower competition. The rigid alliance structure and focus on collective defense were well-suited to deterring Soviet aggression.

With the demise of the USSR in 1991, NATO adapted to the new realities of the so-called “unipolar moment.” The absence of a major peer competitor allowed the U.S. to maintain its dominant position within the Alliance, and NATO morphed into an instrument of American primacy.

But the unipolar moment has definitively passed and we have entered a new geopolitical era — one defined fundamentally by multipolarity. The rise of China, a resurgent Russia, a more assertive India and the rise of other regional powers has created a more complex, chaotic and competitive security environment. Läs artikel

NATO is approaching a watershed moment. It is worth remembering that the most successful military alliance in world history started as a peace project, and its future success depends on its ability to maintain peace. But today, instead of peace, the agenda is the pursuit of war; instead of defense it is offense. All this runs counter to NATO’s founding values. Hungary’s historical experience is that such transformations never lead in a good direction. The task today should be to preserve the alliance as a peace project.

On those occasions when we need to make statements about NATO, we Hungarians are in a special position. Our accession to NATO was the first time in several centuries that Hungary had voluntarily joined a military alliance. The significance of our membership only becomes clear in light of Hungary’s history. Läs artikel

– Total timepris er 360.000 kroner, skriver Forsvarets pressevakt Aleksander Hage i en e-post til Vi Menn.

Dette inkluderer ikke utgifter til personell, infrastruktur, investeringer og oppgraderinger.

– Estimatene kan endre seg basert på nye kostnadsvurderinger eller endringer i valutakurser, spesielt dollar, opplyser Hage.

Hvor mange timer en F-35-pilot må fly i året for å være operativ, er gradert informasjon. Läs artikel

[…] The deployment involved many “firsts” for the brigade, the U.S. military and its Nordic NATO allies, said Brig. Gen. Steve Carpenter, commanding general of the 7th Army Training Command.

“With the addition of Finland and Sweden, the opportunity presented itself to go ahead and offload a brigade combat team here at Narvik. It has never been done before,” he said.

And a U.S. Army brigade had never transited by land across Norway and Sweden to conduct a combined exercise in Finland. “You’re going to have 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, a storied brigade, a storied division, fighting underneath the NATO banner underneath a Finnish land component.” […]

“We keep just using Germany … the easy button,” he said. “Then, let’s say a crisis kicks off and you can’t use it, where else are we going to go? We haven’t really, truly tested a lot of ports.”

That’s why the Army started an aggressive effort a few years ago to find alternatives, he said. That involves determining what a port can handle in volume and size of equipment and evaluating whether the adjacent road and rail networks can handle the load.

“And then if we can’t do as much as we would like to, what do our NATO partners need?” he continued, saying the Army is messaging allies, “Hey, in order to assist to defend Europe as a NATO partner and ally, we need to try to help expand your rail network or expand your road network.”

The United States has been pushing for more infrastructure investment in Europe, he said.

“We have to be more interoperable to where any unit, any country’s set of vehicles can transport all over the different roads, road networks, rail networks,” he said. Läs artikel

[…] As geopolitical competition intensifies, it is crucial that the United States and its European allies deepen their ties in all fields in order to strengthen the resilience of our societies and economies. In the long term, we cannot subsidize or isolate ourselves into success. Instead, we must continue building our progress based on fair competition, openness and well-proven multilateral solutions. […]

Our long-term goal should be a free trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S. Before political conditions make that possible, the focus should be on dismantling nontariff barriers by way of intensified regulatory cooperation. Läs artikel

Multiple European leaders slam Hungary’s Russia-sympathizing PM for talking to Moscow without a mandate.

Fresh off the back of his trip to Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to several media reports.

The meet would take place on the fifth day of Hungary’s turn at the helm of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. […]

Following initial reports on Thursday of a possible Orbán-Putin meet in Moscow, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, wrote on X: “The EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU. “The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.” Läs artikel