New government in Sweden: Removed reservation against Nato bases
SÄLEN (VG) The new Swedish bourgeois government has abandoned the social democrats’ reservations about not wanting to allow foreign bases in Sweden when the country becomes a member of NATO.
The new Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson tells VG that the base policy will be a discussion internally in Sweden when the membership is in order, i.e. when Turkey and Hungary, as the last member states, have approved the Swedish membership.
– We have chosen to do like Norway: not make reservations before becoming an ally, but that you will be asked that question when the membership is in place, says Jonson.
The topic came up at the big Swedish safety conference in the ski village of Sälen on Sunday there NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg was presentand where the Swedish king Carl Gustaf sat in the first row.
Not bases or nuclear weapons
Norway and Denmark have made reservations within NATO about both the base policy and have declared national prohibitions against stockpiling nuclear weapons in peacetime.
Jonsson will not answer how he and the new government of moderate Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stand for bases with foreign soldiers in Sweden.
– The Social Democrats were very concerned about this reservation. Now we must have broad political discussions. We will have to come back to the exact wording when we become a member, says Jonson to VG.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has previously said that no one will press either nuclear weapons or foreign bases on land that will oppose this.
VG is known with both Sweden and Finland having no formal reservations in its application for Nato membership when delivered in Brussels in May 2022.
The two applicant countries were advised not to make formal reservations at the time of an application, but rather raise them internally later.
Among other things, it was shown how Russia has used every opportunity to criticize Norway for an alleged breach of its own base policy, both during allied exercises and visits by foreign vessels that may have had nuclear weapons on board.
Subject to reservations
The leader of the Social Democrats, Magdalena Andersson, was prime minister in Sweden when the application was delivered before the summer of last year. Then the party clearly communicated that they would take the same political reservations as Norway and Denmark, about bases and about nuclear weapons.
Well, at the security conference in Sälen on Sunday – Kristersson clearly said no to nuclear weapons on Swedish soil – but did not repeat the reservation about the base policy:
When asked what she thinks about the new government not standing by the base reservation, former Prime Minister Andersson said:
– I assume that Ulf Kristersson stands by what he said in Sweden’s Riksdag in May, when we submitted the NATO application. He was very clear then. We have done like the other Nordic countries: We made no reservations when we submitted the application. But we have declared early on that when we become members, we will do what Norway and Denmark have done: unilaterally declare that we do not want nuclear weapons or fixed bases on our land, Magdalena Andersson told VG.
Requirements we cannot meet
In Sweden, people continue to wait impatiently for Turkey and Hungary, as the last countries, to approve Swedish and Finnish NATO membership.
According to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Turkey has advanced demands for the extradition of persons whom Sweden neither can nor will extradite, because they are either Swedish citizens or formal legal processes have rejected extradition.
– They have demands we cannot meet, said Kristersson.
He added that Sweden “has what we need to do” to be done the agreement that Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey during the NATO summit in Madrid in July 2022.
Jens Stoltenberg said in Sälen that he is confident that Turkey will approve the membership.
– I believe that the time has come for them to ratify the membership agreement. But I don’t want to speculate when that will happen, said the NATO chief.
Nordic Commission
In Sälen, Magdalena Andersson launched a new party proposal from the Social Democrats on a Nordic Defense Commissionwhen Sweden and Finland become members of NATO.
Former Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist tells VG that the idea has already been discussed with the Labor Party and the Finnish Social Democratic Party.