Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told the annual security conference on Sunday that Sweden is not at war, but neither is it at peace, news agency TT reported.
advertisementSweden has announced it will donate up to three warships to NATO’s efforts to increase the alliance’s presence in the Baltic Sea to prevent sabotage of underwater infrastructure.
Stockholm said the Swedish military will also donate an ASC 890 surveillance aircraft.
And the country’s coast guard has provided four ships to help monitor the Baltic Sea, with seven more ships expected to be on standby.
The government said this is the first time Sweden has contributed troops to the alliance’s defense and deterrent capabilities since joining the alliance last March.
Sweden becomes NATO’s 32nd member, joining neighboring Finland in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision comes amid growing concerns about possible Russian activity in the region following a series of incidents in the Baltic Sea.
At the end of December, NATO chief Mark Rutte said the alliance would strengthen its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
This happened after an accident on Christmas Day that damaged the Estlink-2 cable that runs between Finland and Estonia.
Authorities in both countries suspect the Russian-linked oil tanker Eagle S was responsible for dragging the anchor to the seabed.
The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands, but Finnish customs and EU officials believe it is part of Russia’s shadow tanker fleet, transporting oil and gas in defiance of international sanctions imposed over the Ukraine war. It is explained that.
Aging vessels with unclear ownership are routinely operated without Western-regulated insurance.
Finnish police seized the ship and brought it back to port in late December, and by early January had arrested all 24 people on board, eight of whom were subject to movement restrictions.
Suspicion of sabotage
Since 2022, countries in the region have been on alert following a series of accidents involving submarine cables and gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Two data cables – one between Finland and Germany and the other between Lithuania and Sweden – were cut in November.
Germany’s defense minister said authorities should assume the incident was an “act of sabotage”, but gave no evidence and did not say who was responsible.
advertisementAnd the Nord Stream pipeline, which once carried natural gas from Russia to Germany, was damaged by an underwater explosion in September 2022.
Authorities blamed sabotage and launched a criminal investigation.
NATO had already stepped up patrols near undersea infrastructure following the Nord Stream pipeline attack.
