Sweden has enjoyed a 200-year era of neutrality and nonalignment. But when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, both Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership. Finland succeeded in joining the alliance in 2023. Sweden was accepted in March. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson spoke to The Post’s Lally Weymouth on the eve of embarking to the NATO summit held in D.C. this week.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Excerpts:
Lally Weymouth:What will you tell the NATO prime ministers about Ukraine?
Ulf Kristersson: We will tell them the extreme importance of allowing Ukraine to win this war and that Ukraine will never be able to win unless we stick to our united support.
I heard that your country knows a lot about Russia.
We have been following and watching Russia for hundreds of years.
How do you see the threat posed by President Vladimir Putin and Russia?
We have always been very suspicious of Russian aggression. Obviously things have changed dramatically since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We say now that we should have realized [the extent of Russia’s threat] in 2008, [when Russia destabilized] Georgia, and then in 2014, when the first [Russian] aggression against Ukraine took place. In 2022, it became totally self-evident. Now, Russia is the defining threat that we build all of our defense capabilities to be able to meet.
Do you see Russia as the major threat not only to your country but also to Europe?
Quite a few countries in Europe, even those geographically far away from Russia, realize that if Russia succeeds in its invasion of Ukraine, it will pose an enormous threat to other European countries.
In other words, Russia might invade other countries?
If they succeed in their ambitions in Ukraine, there are no signs suggesting that Russia will settle and say, “We won’t do anything more.” I think it’s obvious that they are willing to take big risks. They are willing to act militarily in a way that most European countries did not expect Russia to do.
But they have not succeeded.
Leading defense experts in the United States argue that President Biden’s fear of nuclear escalation has led him to put too many restrictions on the use of weapons that the United States has delivered to Ukraine. For example, the administration told the Ukrainian government that, by and large, it can’t use U.S. weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Does Sweden put such restrictions on the weapons that it sends to Ukraine?
No, we do not have any restrictions on how to use the weapons we deploy to Ukraine. I think most countries don’t. If you are not entitled to stop the perpetrator, then you are very limited in the ways you can protect yourself. The Russians constantly repeat the threat of using nuclear weapons in a way that is very careless in this sensitive situation. But we cannot allow ourselves to put too many limits on Ukraine’s right to stop the aggression from Russia.
How do you assess the situation in Ukraine now?
Russia has not succeeded the way they hoped. On the other hand, Ukraine is fighting bravely, but they obviously need more support from Western and European allies. European Union countries have kept the unity in supporting Ukraine, but we have also kept up unity between Europe and the United States in support of Ukraine. It would have been very hard for Europe to help Ukraine on its own.
At the same time, if we ask the United States to be committed to what is happening on our continent, we in Europe have good reason to be committed to American security concerns in other parts of the world. We should worry more about what is happening in China, for example.
Do you think there will be a settlement forced on Ukraine’s president, VolodymyrZelensky? How do you think the war will end?
Everybody would like peace, but I think that in most European countries, people firmly believe that peace must be settled on Ukrainian terms.
Ukraine’s government says that means taking back all of Ukraine.
As long as they say that, that needs to be the starting point. It’s not Ukraine that is threatening Russia; it’s Russia that is occupying, or trying to occupy, Ukraine. Peace can only be discussed on Ukrainian terms. Otherwise we will redraw the security framework of Europe.
Russia has a huge advantage in manpower over Ukraine, doesn’t it?
Yes, Russia is a big country and Ukraine is much smaller. Given that, I think the Ukrainians [have performed] very impressively. Some people said this war would end in just a few weeks with a Russian victory. That has obviously not happened. The Ukrainians are really struggling. But let us be honest — that struggle would not have been at all as successful without the enormous support in military, financial and political terms from the European and American partners.
Do you worry about what a victory by former president Donald Trump would mean for Europe and Ukraine?
Yes, most European leaders are worried about the risk of the United States being less committed to what is happening in Europe. I think most European leaders realize that in the long run, we Europeans have to step up for ourselves regardless of who wins the presidential election in the United States in November. Europe will have to defend itself and pay for its own defense.
There is a fair criticism in the United States against quite a few European countries for not funding their armed forces in a sufficient way. There is a good reason for many European countries, Sweden included, to increase our investments in national defense.
What percentage of its gross domestic product does Sweden spend on defense?
We are doubling our defense spending in Sweden during a period of four years. This year, we will reach the 2 percent ceiling.
Source link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/09/europe-nato-spending-sweden-kristersson/
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-09 18:16:17
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
