Sweden announces $30 bln boost in defense spending, largest since Cold War
Sweden will ramp up its defense spending by approximately 300 billion kronor ($30 billion) over the next decade, the country's prime minister announced on Wednesday, marking the country's most significant rearmament effort since the Cold War.
The aim was to increase defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2030, up from the current 2.4 percent, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
"We have a completely new security situation... and uncertainties will remain for a long time," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters, adding that it marks Sweden's "biggest rearmament since the Cold War".
The Nordic country dropped two centuries of military non-alignment and applied for membership in NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, becoming its 32nd member in March 2024.
Sweden has already decided on investments that are expected to put defence spending at 2.6 percent of GDP in a few years, Kristersson said, noting this already put it above NATO's two-percent spending target.
"That is not enough," Kristersson said. "Our assessment is that NATO and especially European NATO countries need to take major steps in the coming years."
Kristersson said that his country expected that NATO would decide to increase the spending target at an upcoming summit of the alliance in June and was aiming at what it was believed that new target would be.
In March 2022, Stockholm announced it would increase spending, aiming to dedicate two percent of GDP to defence "as soon as possible".
While previous defence spending increases have been financed through the country's regular budget, Kristersson said that in order to rearm in such short time it was necessary to borrow funds for defence during a "transitional period".
"Today's announcement can really be summed up as a larger, faster and stronger total defence, both civilian and military," Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Ebba Busch said, speaking alongside Kristersson.
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