Stockholm announces that it will strengthen defense cooperation with Washington
9 Jan. () –
The Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced Monday that civilian military service will be restored with the aim of reaching 10,000 new recruits by 2030, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The Government considers that it is urgent to prepare for an activation of the civil service. The Social Protection and Preparation Authority (MSB) will be in charge of carrying out the preparations for the activation of civil duty for the municipal rescue services,” he explained in a statement from the Swedish government.
Kristersson has announced the measure, which will be transferred to the MSB on Thursday, in a joint press conference with Defense Minister, Pal Jonson, and the person in charge of Defense, Civil Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who has highlighted that the new government has assumed the charge “at a difficult time” crisis over the war in Ukraine.
“We are going to take Sweden to NATO and we assumed the presidency of the EU a little over a week ago. It will be a presidency characterized by war and crisis,” he said at a press conference, adding that the restoration of the civil service is a “very urgent issue” for the current government.
For his part, Defense Minister Pal Johnson has indicated that they will strengthen defense cooperation with Washington. “We have recently started negotiations on this with the United States. We are going from being close partners to allies,” he said, as reported by the newspaper ‘Dagens Nyheter’.
Specifically, the pact is called the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) and will regulate the legal status of US soldiers in Sweden, as well as other measures, such as investment in infrastructure or the storage of defense equipment.
The United States has similar DCA agreements with several countries. Finland also announced in September its intention to start the process. Both Nordic countries have applied to join NATO, a process that has been halted by Turkey.
Ankara refuses to admit these two countries to the Atlantic Alliance until they hand over all the individuals accused of belonging to Kurdish organizations declared by the Turkish government as terrorist groups, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
