Sweden is ready to dialogue with Hungary, which is still delaying Stockholm's accession to NATO. However, joining the alliance “is not a matter of negotiation”, said Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson in an interview with Euractiv.
“The message I received from my Hungarian colleague is that the Hungarian parliament will ratify us as quickly as possible,” Jonson told Euractiv last week.
Hungary is the last country that has not yet agreed to Swedish membership in NATO, twenty months after Stockholm presented its candidacy. Budapest has said it is delaying Stockholm's accession to NATO due to negative comments it made about Hungarian democracy.
However, Sweden's membership of NATO “is not a matter of negotiation.” Jonson explained this when asked whether he or his prime minister planned to travel to Budapest for talks, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had requested.
The Swedish prime minister said a few days later that he was looking forward to meeting Orbán.
“As future allies, we can have a dialogue […] and then we’ll look in detail at what collaboration issues they would like to explore,” Jonson said.
“The Hungarians, for example, do this [schwedische] Gripen System [Kampfflugzeuge] and we have good military cooperation, so we can certainly have a dialogue.”
But the situation in this case is different from that in Turkey, with a memorandum of understanding signed and legal changes and negotiations planned, he said. It was different “because Turkey had legitimate concerns when it came to international terrorists.”
The Hungarian parliament could decide on Sweden's membership of the Western military alliance on Monday (26 February) at the earliest. But recent internal scandals – Hungary's president resigned after pardoning a sexual abuse case last week – have cast doubt on that timeline.
“We are ready to join the alliance. We have a high level of interoperability [mit den anderen NATO-Mitgliedern] and we can be a security provider, especially in strengthening regional defense plans, where Sweden can provide strategic depth and a staging and basing area,” Jonson added.
Western support for Ukraine
Swedish Civil Protection Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin caused controversy last year when he urged citizens to prepare for an imminent war with Russia.
Currently, Jonson said, war “is not imminent, but the security environment has continued to deteriorate over the last four or five months.”
“We have seen Russia convert its economy and defense industry to war. At the same time, there was a struggle for long-term military support in both the EU and the United States,” he said.
With the US military aid package for Ukraine failing to pass Congress, the Europeans are trying to take a greater role in providing defense supplies to Kiev.
“If the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine developed to the benefit of Russia, we would have a lot of problems in Europe […]“We must be clear that Russia has a strong desire to take political and military risks,” warned Jonson.
“That’s why supporting Ukraine is an investment in our security,” he warned.
Jonson said he believes the Europeans can meet urgent, short-term needs for air defense and artillery ammunition while also meeting long-term needs.
“Promising steps are being taken, but it is important that we all reinforce our efforts, both in the short and medium term”, he stated.
“We note that although Russia has not been particularly impressive tactically and operationally on the battlefield, it has demonstrated a certain degree of resilience: it can regenerate its armed forces and new defense materials.”
Increasing industrial production of ammunition, of which Ukraine uses about 10,000 per day and Russia uses three times that amount, is crucial. Kiev's armed forces are now forced to ration their supplies, NATO says.
“This is a war of warehouses, a war of attrition. Therefore, a strong industrial defense base is part of a credible deterrent,” Jonson explained. Sweden is considering tripling production of 155mm artillery and other ammunition.
No purely European industrial base
The European Commission is currently looking at how the EU's defense industry can be strengthened through long-term contracts and financing. This would only benefit European – and possibly Norwegian and Ukrainian – industry.
When asked whether he would be in favor of giving preference to European companies in defense contracts, Jonson replied that “the participation of third countries is important to us”. to exclude the need to also buy European products.
“The transatlantic connection is very important. Our defense industry is very Atlantic-oriented and without close technical cooperation with the United States we would not be able to build combat aircraft.”
In discussions on EU plans to finance the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine, Sweden called for the participation of industries outside the Union, citing the urgency of the situation. France, on the other hand, wanted EU money to go only to manufacturers on the continent and ended up prevailing.
However, Jonson stressed that he wants “Sweden to be at the center of European security and defense policy and we will use our NATO membership to be at the center of the EU on these issues”.
However, he warned that expressions such as “'European Army' can have many unintended consequences because we want to maintain and reinforce the transatlantic connection”.
[Bearbeitet von Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]