Despite committing billions of kronor to defence in the coming years, to revamp the military back to its Cold War-era status, a recent report presented by Supreme Commander Micael Bydén says Swedish defence will still fall short of $4.3 billion if the will of politicians' is fully implemented.
Non-aligned Sweden is revamping its military with billions of dollars in a beef-up unseen since the Cold War era.
Swedish politicians have pledged to spend an additional SEK 5 billion ($510 million) annually on top of the adopted military budget each year from 2021 to 2025. Overall, Sweden plans to spend SEK 60 billion ($6.4 billion) annually on defence starting from 2025, and this amount is expected to increase further by 2030.
Social Democrat Defence Minister, Peter Hultqvist, stressed that the major hike is about “being able to defend itself” and made it crystal clear from whom.
“We have seen what Russia has done in Georgia, in Crimea and now in Ukraine. It has shown that the overall security situation has changed. Russia has increased investment in its military and its presence in the Baltic Sea but does not pose a direct threat to Sweden. However, we have seen what Russia is capable of”, Hultqvist told the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
“We have decided that Sweden must expand its capacity to defend the country territorially. Therefore, it has been decided to add significant funds until 2021 and to invest further towards 2025”, Hultqvist added.
After decades of massive cuts,…
