Military spending in Sweden returns to levels of the cold war. The Swedish government presented on Tuesday a rearma plan with which it will raise the investment in defense up to 3.5% of GDP in 2030. The Scandinavian country, which a year ago, will request loans for 300,000 million Swedish crowns (27.7 billion euros) to finance the reinforcement of its army and armament purchases. The increase in military spending responds to the increase in tension with Russia and fear, fed by the threats of President Donald Trump, that the United States disregards its defense commitments with its European allies.
The Nordic country, which gradually reduced its investment in defense since the mid -sixties, and drastically from the collapse of the Soviet Union – even 1% of GDP in 2018 -, had already doubled in the last four years and the government had projected to raise it to 2.8% in 2028. Now, however, it has come to the conclusion that it must spend more and faster. The Rearme Plan includes armament purchases in the coming months worth 2.3 billion euros that will be delivered in the next three years. Among the material that the Armed Forces of Sweden will acquire, anti -aircraft defense systems, artillery pieces, drones and a lot of ammunition.
This Monday, just one day before the presentation of the Rearme Plan, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristerson, had claimed at a press conference in Stockholm that at the next summit of the Atlantic Alliance, which will be held at the end of June in The Hague, the allies should establish a new minimum target of defense spending over 3% of GDP. “We are pressing to be high enough to increase significantly. It could be set at 3.5%, with an additional 1.5% for other aspects related to civil defense and military support to Ukraine,” suggested the conservative president, before adding: “You can no longer assume or take for granted that the United States will continue to act in Europe as it has done in the last 80 years.”
The minimum expenditure objective of NATO members is currently 2% of GDP. Last year, 23 of the 32 allies surpassed him, in front of the only three (United States, the United Kingdom and Greece) that complied with him when he set in 2014. Some border countries with Russia, such as Poland, Estonia and Lithuania, plan to raise it next year to 5% – the figure that Trump has claimed to his European allies on more than one occasion.
The Swedish government has also announced that it will reinforce the capacities of the Coast Guard to face, in addition to the creation of two mechanized brigades that will have its bases in the northernmost area of the country, north of the Arctic Polar Circle.
The Rearme Plan that has occurred on Tuesday at the Swedish Parliament, and that will be voted on June 30, has been agreed by the tripartite government – and the Ultraderechist Party Democrats from Sweden, which holds the Executive with their parliamentary support. The multimillionaire investment, which arrives at a time of stagnation of the economy of the Nordic country, will be financed through loans valued at 27.7 billion euros during the next decade. The Swedish Executive approved last year, with the support of the Social Democrats, the first political force of the country, to relax the fiscal rules to facilitate rearmament ,.
The public debt of the Scandinavian country is around 31% of GDP, compared to an average of 88% throughout the EU. “Sweden is in a stronger position than most other countries and we have a greater capacity to respond to events,” said Elisabeth Svantesson, the Minister of Finance on Tuesday.
Along with the increase in defense spending, the Swedish government presented on Tuesday the so -called spring budget – which traditionally does not contain great political initiatives, but minor adjustments – which includes a fiscal relief for the renewal of housing and an injection of money for schools, prisons and road maintenance.
