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(Bloomberg) — Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Christerson hinted that the country may increase its defense spending amid the risk of hybrid war in the Nordic and Baltic regions.
“I do not at all rule out that the situation will require us to take further steps to build up and expand the Swedish defence,” Kristersson said in opening remarks on Sunday at Folk och Forsvar, a security conference in the ski resort of Salen. ” ,
Kristersson pointed out that the Baltic countries invest about 3% of their economies on defense while Finland allocates 2.4%, but have twice as many troops as Sweden, despite a smaller population. “European NATO must do more,” he said.
His comments come as NATO stepped up its surveillance operations in the Baltic Sea, deploying two ships to the area following suspected sabotage of undersea cables between Finland and Estonia.
The prime minister said it would be wrong to draw hasty conclusions on the latest episode of cable damage, but added that “Sweden is not naïve and hostile intentions cannot be ruled out.”
Later at a press conference, the government announced that the country’s armed forces and coast guard would deepen their cooperation in the Baltic Sea. The prime minister also said his country would send three warships and an aircraft to a planned NATO surveillance operation in the area in the coming days.
The Nordic nation officially became NATO’s newest member in March last year, in a move seen as strengthening the defense alliance’s grip on Northern Europe and the Baltic region.
“Sweden is not at war, but there is no peace there either,” Kristersson said.
(Updated with more details.)
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