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https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/blinken-awarded-royal-swedish-order-for-contributions-to-nato-membership/

Sweden

Blinken awarded royal Swedish order for contributions to NATO membership

Sweden-NATO-relationship

Published 25 October 2024
– By Editorial Staff
A smiling Ulf Kristersson (M) with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (D) celebrates Sweden's membership in the NATO military alliance.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Ten foreigners are now to be awarded Sweden’s Royal Order of the North Star in recognition of their efforts in connection with Sweden’s membership of NATO.

The recipients include US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former NATO head Jens Stoltenberg and former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Sweden is now rewarding several international actors for their support during the country’s application process and entry into the US-controlled NATO military alliance.

According to a government press release, King Carl XVI Gustaf has decided to award the Order of the North Star to ten foreigners, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

– The honours are an expression of our great gratitude for the efforts of these individuals in connection with Sweden’s membership of NATO, writes Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) on the X platform.

Special thanks to Finland

According to the government, the awards are part of Sweden’s way of saying thank you for the efforts that helped Sweden secure membership of the military alliance. The government has particularly emphasised the importance of the support from Finland, whose government and former leaders have played a central role in the process.

The former Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, and the former Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, will both be awarded the rank of Commander with the Grand Cross of the Order of the North Star. The same honour will be bestowed on Finland’s Foreign Minister, Petri Hakkarainen, who will be promoted to Commander First Class.

Mr Kristersson also paid special tribute to former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who had previously been awarded the Order of the Seraphim for his support during Sweden’s accession to the military alliance.

Sauli Niinistö

Finlands tidigare president Sauli Niinistö. Foto: Kremlin.ru

Several US recipients

In addition to the Finnish recipients, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Advisor Jacob Sullivan will also be honoured. Mr Blinken, who has played a key role in diplomatic talks between Sweden and NATO, will be honoured for what is described as his “extraordinary efforts on behalf of Swedish interests”.

Jens Stoltenberg, the recently retired Secretary General of NATO, will also receive the Order of the North Star for his efforts to bring Sweden closer to NATO.

Other recipients include several diplomats and security advisers who played key roles during Sweden’s application process and membership of the military alliance.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/sweden-to-host-nato-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-helsingborg/

Sweden

Sweden to host NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Helsingborg

Sweden-NATO-relationship

Published 10 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Maria Malmer Stenergard, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Moderate Party, will represent Sweden at the meeting.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Every year, an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers is arranged, and next year the event will be held in Sweden – more specifically in Helsingborg, Skåne.

– It is with pride that Sweden will host the informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers next year, says Maria Malmer Stenergard, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Moderate Party.

The first conference of the US-led military pact’s foreign ministers was held in Berlin in 2022 and this year’s edition will be held in Antalya, Turkey, in May. The aim is said to be to give ministers the opportunity to discuss in a freer environment – without having to take into account any formal agenda.

– I look forward to welcoming my colleagues to a strategically important region. Helsingborg’s location on the Öresund, one of the world’s busiest straits and the gateway to the Baltic Sea, links the Nordic countries and Europe, Stenergard continues.

Although the conference is not an official part of the military alliance’s activities, it is being planned in close cooperation with NATO, and will be chaired by Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/swedish-professor-reasonable-for-future-generations-to-pay-for-the-rearmament/

Sweden

Swedish professor: Reasonable for future generations to pay for the rearmament

Sweden-NATO-relationship

Published 27 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Daniel Waldenström thinks it is right that taxes should be raised for future generations to finance today's build up.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Swedish leaders have decided to borrow €27.5 billion for a major military investment that Ulf Kristersson describes as the “biggest rearmament since the Cold War“.

Daniel Waldenström is a professor of economics, and he thinks it is perfectly reasonable that future generations of Swedes will have to pay for the current governments project.

The Moderate-led government has announced that Sweden will spend 3.5 percent of GDP on defense – compared to the current 2.4 percent. To achieve this, they intend to borrow the equivalent of €4,600 per Swede of working age – a total of €27.5 billion.

Waldenström, who works at the Institute for Business Research, does not think the sum is anything to argue about – and points out that during the Second World War, Sweden went from spending 2% to 10% of GDP on defense in a single year.

He acknowledges, however, that the military effort will mean cuts in several areas.

– It means that we will have to reprioritize our spending. We will have to cut back on some things and give more priority to civilian and military preparedness and war capacity. This will mean reducing or eliminating some spending, otherwise we cannot afford it.

“Will take a bigger hit”

The fact that the huge investment is financed with borrowed money is not strange but fully justified, as long as you have a clear plan about what you need to borrow for.

– Only after we say, ‘this is how much money we will need for this expenditure’. Instead of starting by collecting money and putting it in a bag for unclear purposes and then risking that politicians will be able to ‘draw’ from this bag for lots of things that we had not intended. I would say that is a risk in such cases that we can avoid.

Since the money will be paid back with interest in the future, taxes will also have to be raised in the future, and Waldenström is clear that future generations of Swedes will be forced to finance the decisions made today.

– It’s clear that future generations will have to take a bigger hit than if we were to just go on this year’s budget. But it also seems reasonable that future generations should help finance reconstruction because it will also benefit them.

– It’s simply that they will have to pay a bit more tax as a result of this. They will have to pay taxes to finance our repayment of these loans, concludes the professor.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/swedish-government-borrows-billions-for-biggest-military-buildup-since-cold-war/

Sweden

Swedish government borrows billions for biggest military buildup since Cold War

Sweden-NATO-relationship

Published 26 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The leaders of the governing coalition parties during Wednesday's press conference.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The Moderate-led government and the Swedish Social Democratic Party have agreed to borrow about €4,600 per Swede of working age for Sweden’s military rearmament – a total of €27.5 billion.

– This will be the biggest rearmament since the Cold War, declares Ulf Kristersson (M).

During a press conference, the leaders of the coalition parties stated that Sweden will spend 3.5% of GDP on the military by 2030 – compared to 2.4% today.

To reach this goal, the Swedish Armed Forces will receive an additional SEK 300 billion (€27.5 billion) – and the investment will be financed through loans.

– It’s about a loan-financed defense investment from this year through 2030 until 2035 that could amount to a total of about SEK 300 billion, confirms Ulf Kristersson.

– A European NATO that reaches 3.5% will be much, much stronger than we are today, the Prime Minister further claims.

More money for Kiev

The money will be used, among other things, to buy military equipment for the Swedish army – but there is also a promise to further increase military aid to Ukraine.

A decision has already been taken to provide Kiev with weapons and other support worth €2.3 billion annually until 2026 – but now the Swedish government wants to use next year’s allocation already this year and add another €1.85 billion.

– We need to do what we can here and now to further strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities, says Johan Pehrson (L), Minister of Education.

NATO currently requires member states to spend at least 2% of GDP on their defense – but that requirement is expected to be raised already this summer to somewhere between 3% and 5%, according to analysts.

The background to this is that the Trump administration wants Europe to take greater financial responsibility for the costs of the military pact. The US has also announced its intention to reduce its military presence on the continent, while Russia is increasingly identified by EU leaders as an urgent military threat that Europe must be ready to fight.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/researchers-on-swedens-nato-accession-great-irony/

Sweden

Researchers on Sweden’s NATO accession: “Great irony”

Sweden-NATO-relationship

Published 9 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Ulf Kristersson promised the Swedish people that NATO membership would bring great benefits.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

When Sweden joined NATO a year ago, the decision was justified on the grounds that we would be safer and more secure in the US-led military pact.

Now the future of the organization seems increasingly uncertain, and it is unclear whether the Americans would really come to Sweden’s rescue if such a need arose.

Isak Svensson, a professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, notes that the NATO Sweden joined last year has already changed significantly.

He points out that the early stages of Donald Trump’s presidency have brought radical changes in the US view of the military alliance and foreign policy in general, and that the US now seems to have a very different attitude towards Russia than under the more hostile Biden administration.

– Sweden entered NATO with expectations of how it was, but now we see how the US is changing. If the US starts to waver, it’s very problematic, he says.

Ulf Kristersson’s government has previously argued that Swedish security would be strengthened by membership of the military pact – referring in particular to NATO’s Article 5 and the “security guarantee” whereby all members must help another member state if it is attacked – militarily or otherwise.

“Precarious situation”

Although the “security guarantee” has not been officially rejected, many observers are now concerned that it no longer applies in practice in the same way as before, and that Sweden is not at all guaranteed US support if it is attacked.

– It is a great irony that Sweden becomes the 32nd member, while the transatlantic link is in a precarious situation, says Magnus Christiansson, a war scientist at the Swedish National Defense University.

Despite the uncertainty, he is still in favor of Swedish NATO membership and believes that Sweden would not have been able to cooperate militarily or receive the same support from the other 31 member states if it was outside the military pact.

A common EU army?

The US has been a dominant power in Europe for many decades – both diplomatically and militarily, but Christiansson believes that Sweden and Europe are becoming less dependent on the Americans and are instead finding new ways to cooperate.

– In every meeting now, they talk about Europe having to take more responsibility, he says.

What this will mean in practice is not entirely clear, but several European leaders have recently emphasized the importance of building a common European army, arguing that this is necessary if the US reduces its military presence on the continent.

Such an “EU army” would also make it easier to continue to assist Ukraine and continue the war against Russia should the Americans pull out completely.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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