Sweden calls for a joint army with its neighbors to protect the northern regions

The chairman of the Swedish Parliament's Defense Committee, Peter Hultqvist, called for a joint army with neighbors to protect the northern regions (Arctic).

In detail, Hultqvist, a former defense minister and current chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee, urged the formation of a joint Norwegian-Finnish-Swedish army to protect northern Kalote, the territories of Norway, Finland and Sweden north of the Arctic Circle, as well as the Murmansk region, which was historically inhabited by the old same people.

In an interview published on Friday in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the head of the Swedish parliament's defense committee said: "We have a serious intention in NATO to do everything in our power for good planning in Scandinavia. The coordination between the armies of Finland, Sweden, and Norway will be in the north of the peninsula. Scandinavian countries are so important that they function practically as a united army.

Hultqvist believes that the Swedish army will be able to participate in the defense of Finland's borders with Russia, and expressed this by saying: "We have a joint responsibility. This is one of the foundations of NATO, a collective responsibility. In the Scandinavian countries we have a special obligation to help each other," noting that Sweden "already has joint military planning with Finland."

The former Swedish Defense Minister also said in his statement that Russia "will remain a serious problem" for the West for a long time to come. Even after the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, tensions will not disappear, adding: "We must have a military force with a high threshold, unity in NATO and the European Union."

Source: TASS

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