Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson has said her government wants to boost the country’s military capabilities and speed up its ongoing rearmament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Sweden’s defense capabilities need to be strengthened, retools need to be accelerated,” Anderson said in a televised address.
“Sweden must have a strong defense,” he said. It announced that its government would further increase the amount of its military spending.
“We are not under immediate threat of attack, but the overall level of threat has increased,” he added.
Since the end of the Cold War, Sweden has been steadily reducing its military spending. Parliament agreed to call this policy into question only after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Sweden resumed compulsory military service in 2017.
In October, the country announced a 40% increase in its defense budget, with an additional 27 billion kroner (2.5 billion euros) between 2021 and 2025.
Add to that the projected increases between 2014 and 2020, and Sweden’s military spending increased by 85%, which Defense Minister Peter Helkvist described as “the largest percentage increase in military spending since the 1950s”.
Sweden, which is presented as a non-aligned country, is not a member of NATO, but works closely with the Alliance.
As in Finland, the debate over possible NATO membership has revived in recent weeks. According to a poll published on Friday by the public television network SVT, support for NATO membership has risen to 41% of respondents, a historically high percentage in Sweden.
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