MADRID – Russia’s reaction so far has been “mild enough” for Sweden to get the green light to join NATO, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Wednesday. But his country is ready if Moscow reacts with cyberattacks or other aggressive measures, he added.
“Russia’s response has been quite soft, which I think makes a lot of sense,” Andersson said in an interview with POLITICO the morning after Sweden and neighboring Finland reached a historic agreement to join NATO. . “Russia knows that we have been a partner of NATO for a long time, that we have worked closely with NATO for many years. So maybe they don’t see it as such a big step.”
“But of course,” he added, “we have increased our readiness [a] Russia’s potential response, for example, when it comes to cybernetics. ”
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and called for NATO membership, perhaps the clearest indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war had counterproductive state. Putin claimed that his invasion of Ukraine was partly intended to contain NATO and prevent further expansion of the US-led military alliance.
Turkey had prevented the Nordic nations from joining the alliance, but Ankara yielded on Tuesday night at the start of a NATO leaders’ summit in Madrid. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised the deal as a “historic decision”.
In the interview, Andersson used similar language to describe the developments. “This was a historic day for Sweden and for NATO yesterday,” he said. “My ambition is for this to not only increase security in Sweden and Finland, but in NATO as a whole.”
Sweden and Finland have long been NATO-associated nations, and their relatively advanced military are already highly interoperable with those of other allied nations.
But with Sweden and Finland as allies, NATO will instantly gain greatly expanded anti-war capabilities in cold weather. These capabilities are useful in responding to threats from Russia, especially in the Arctic, which is seen as an increasingly competitive and important strategic theater.
Andersson said there was a broad consensus on this point in March when he visited Norway to observe Operation Cold Response, a NATO training exercise, and to speak with military personnel.
“They all said it was very good for soldiers from some countries where there is not as much snow to practice in the northern part of Norway because they were not used to the conditions,” he said. “So now there will be two more allies who are used to ice, snow and very cold weather, minus 40 degrees.”
Andersson said Sweden and Finland are not only joining NATO to protect themselves, but to increase the protection of other allied countries.
“Because a NATO member is something that would, of course, increase security in Sweden and then in Finland, but we have the ambition to be security providers for NATO as a whole and for all countries in the United States. NATO, “he said. “Right now we are in the midst of the greatest accumulation of our army, our defense since the 1950s.”
He added: “We are strong in the water, underwater and in the sky. And together with Finland, they are very strong on the ground, I think that together we will really offer more security to NATO.”