Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist has said that his country will not join NATO as long as he is a defense minister.
Hultqvist, who made a statement to the news program “30 minutes” on his country’s state television SVT, said in November last year, “Sweden will never be a NATO member as long as I am the defense minister.” reminding him of his statement, “I have the same opinion, I say the same word without using the word ‘never’. The situation we came in taught me not to use the word ‘never’.” used the phrases.
Expressing that Sweden is not willing to join NATO for the security of nearby regions, Hultqvist said, “Sweden’s membership in NATO means fundamentally changing the security line. This affects the security of our close region.” he said.
Hultqvist said that Sweden will make the biggest investment of all time in military defense, and they will allocate 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to defense.
According to the news of SVT, Sweden allocated a budget of 6.5 billion dollars to military defense last year. It was noted that after the Russia-Ukraine war, the budget would be increased to 11 billion dollars.
