Today, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Turkish President Erdogan in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Ahead of the meeting, Erdogan is making further demands in order to proceed with Sweden’s application to NATO – the resumption of Turkish membership negotiations with the EU.
The demands were made in an appearance on Turkish television before Erdogan’s departure for the NATO meeting in Lithuania. The EU previously froze negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the bloc following a 2016 coup attempt by the Turkish military.
– “First, come and open the way for Turkey at the European Union and then we will open the way for Sweden, just as we did for Finland, Erdogan said.
The EU put membership negotiations with Turkey on hold following the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 and its aftermath.
Erdogan has also stressed that he believes Sweden has not done enough to combat the radical left-wing Kurdish independence movements based in Sweden, which are considered terrorist organizations by Turkey, the EU and the US.
The new demands are said to further complicate Sweden’s entry into the military alliance.
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Despite EU sanctions and stated ambitions to sharply reduce imports of Russian fossil fuels, Europe still imported record amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia in 2024.
According to experts, there is a logical reason for the increase – Russian gas is simply much cheaper than its competitors.
Data from Rystad Energy shows that 17.8 million tons of Russian LNG were delivered to European ports last year, an increase of over 2 million tons compared to the previous year.
Despite a significant drop in piped gas imports from Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine and the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, the EU continued to purchase record amounts of the country’s LNG. This has been possible as the chilled fuel has been only partially covered by the sanctions imposed by Union member states.
The energy analyst firm released the data shortly after Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas through its territory to the EU. Kiev opted to scrap a five-year transit agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom at the end of 2024, halting the flow of natural gas from Russia to Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Italy and Moldova.
Russian LNG deliveries to the EU not only increased but reached “record levels”, according to Jan-Eric Fahnrich, gas analyst at Rystad Energy. He states that Russia surpassed Qatar as the bloc’s second-largest supplier of LNG in 2024, after the United States.
According to Fahnrich, the EU bought 49.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas through pipelines last year, and another 24.2 billion cubic meters of LNG, some of which was re-exported to other countries.
“Fairly simple”
Data from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) show slightly lower figures, but even these reflect an overall trend of sharply increasing Russian LNG exports. According to Crea, EU imports of Russian LNG increased by 14% year-on-year in 2024 to 17.5 million tons and were worth €7.32 billion.
– The reason for the rise is fairly simple. Russian LNG is offered at a discount to alternative suppliers. With no sanctions imposed on the commodity, companies are operating in their own self-interest and buying increasing quantities of gas from the cheapest supplier, explains Crea’s Russia analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan.
The latest estimates significantly outpace recent projections by Bloomberg, which earlier this week said LNG deliveries from Russia to the EU had risen to 15.5 million tons by 2024 compared to 2020, when the EU imported about 10.5 million tons of the fuel.
US President-elect Donald Trump has announced that a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is now being arranged.
– He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up, Trump said at a meeting of Republican governors in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Trump described the war in Ukraine as “a bloody mess ” and expressed his intention to end the conflict. During his election campaign, he promised to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, but has recently conceded that a six-month period is a more realistic timeframe.
Trump says Putin wants a meeting and they’re setting one up.
If you cut through the noise, what this means is there will be peace with Ukraine soon.
That’s what America voted for, peace and our resources being used for Americans.pic.twitter.com/EgCFeoiSrf
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also confirms that the Russian president’s line has been firmly established that he is open to talks with Trump and that there are no preconditions for such a meeting.
– The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the U.S. president, including Donald Trump, said Peskov.
Trump’s planned meeting with Putin has raised concerns in Kiev, where there are fears that US military support could be reduced and Ukraine could be pushed into an unfavorable peace deal.
Sweden’s prime minister proclaims that Sweden is certainly not at war at the moment – but that the Swedish people should not believe that there is any real peace either.
– Let’s plan for the worst, so we can continue to hope for the best, declares Ulf Kristersson, and calls for continued escalation and rearmament.
During this year’s edition of Folk och Försvar’s national conference, those in power gathered in Sälen to discuss issues related to Sweden’s defense and security policy. This year, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also took part, and in his speech he focused on trying to explain how the government actually views Sweden’s current defense policy status.
– Sweden is not at war.But neither is there peace, the Prime Minister emphasized.
– Real peace requires freedom and that there are no serious conflicts between countries.But we and our neighbors are exposed to hybrid attacks, which are not carried out with robots and soldiers, but with computers, money, disinformation and the risk of sabotage, Kristersson further argued.
“Take this seriously”
In March, it will be one year since Sweden joined the US-led NATO alliance, and the Prime Minister was very proud when he described how Swedish aircraft already contribute to NATO’s airspace surveillance, how 600 Swedish soldiers are on their way to Latvia – and how Sweden is ready to contribute to NATO’s naval forces as well.
– It is an asset for Sweden in NATO that support for our membership is so strong and broad.Politically, but also among the population.It is an expression that we live in serious times.But also a sign that Sweden has changed.
Kristersson believes that Sweden has previously been “a somewhat naive idealist on the sidelines”– but has now become much wiser and has become “a realist at the center of events“.
According to the Moderate leader, Sweden and other countries are not being subjected to conventional warfare – instead, he believes it is a “proxy war” where, for example, Iran is accused of hiring gang criminals to commit acts of violence in Sweden and where Russia is allegedly “undermining democratic elections” in European countries.
– So take this seriously.I and the government take it seriously, he admonished.
“It’s all about priorities”
There do not seem to be any plans to improve relations with Russia and promote de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy – instead, the focus is on deterrence and continued rearmament.
– The Russian threat is by all accounts a long-term one.So must our defense be… It’s all about priorities.We can afford to defend our freedom – but we cannot afford to lose our freedom, he said.
The Prime Minister also stressed that Sweden “is not only a place of freedom and self-realization – but also of responsibility and self-sacrifice” and paid tribute to the young Swedes who “do their duty” by joining the Swedish army.
– Now it is a new era once again. And it doesn’t have to be a pre-war era, but as is well known, those who want peace must be prepared for war.
Kristersson and outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo: U.S. Department of State/Public Domain
“Let’s plan for the worst”
He says that today, just as in the Cold War days, the struggle is between “democracy and dictatorship“, and although he claims that he and his party do not want a war, he says it is nevertheless of the utmost importance to consolidate, arm and increase militarization if one were to happen.
– We won and the dictatorship lost.There is no law of nature that makes it always so.But the free world has done it before and we can do it again.Let’s plan for the worst, so we can continue to hope for the best, he concluded.
The Nordic Times also highlighted Folk och Försvar’s national conference 2024, where the focus was on Sweden’s entry into NATO and alleged domestic and foreign threats to the country.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announces that the US-led alliance will immediately increase its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
The decision comes after the NATO chief met with the Finnish president over what he described as “suspected sabotage” of underwater cables.
“Spoke with Alexander Stubb about the ongoing Finnish-led investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables.I expressed my full solidarity and support.NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea”, declares Rutte on X.
Earlier on Friday, the Estonian military announced that it had “launched an operation” to protect a cable (Estlink 1) that connects Estonia to the Finnish electricity grid, reports TT.
Spoke w/ @alexstubb about the ongoing Finnish-led investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables. I expressed my full solidarity and support. #NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
– We decided last night to launch an operation early this morning, during which the Estonian Navy ship Raju has already sailed out to protect Estlink, said Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur in a radio interview.
The background is that on Christmas Day, the Finnish network operator, Fingrid, reported that it had lost contact with Estlink 2 and shortly afterwards there were also reports of damage to communication cables between Estonia and Finland.
Accusing Russia
The tanker Eagle S, flying the Cook Islands flag, is alleged to have caused the damage with its anchor, and although it is not yet established whether the damage was caused by mistake or sabotage, accusations are already being made against “Russia’s shadow fleet”.
– There is reason to believe that this is organized by Russia.It fits into a pattern of Russian hybrid threats to NATO countries taking on a more physical dimension.There are more and more sabotage actions against critical infrastructure of great importance to the West, says Tormod Heier, a professor at the Norwegian Defense University, without presenting any evidence for his hypothesis.
Even when the Nordstream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were attacked and destroyed in September 2022, Russia was quickly accused by Western politicians and establishment media of being behind the attack.
However, according to award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh , it was the United States, along with Norway, that blew up the pipelines, and the NATO exercise Baltops was used as a cover for Norwegian and American dive teams to plant the bombs off Bornholm.
