bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Sweden announced Thursday that it will reintroduce compulsory military service starting this summer to respond to global security challenges including from Russia.
“The government wants a more stable staff supply system and to boost its military capability because the security situation has changed,” Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told TT news agency.
The Scandinavian nation, which has not seen armed conflict on its territory in two centuries, ended conscription in 2010 after it was deemed an unsatisfactory way of meeting the needs of a modern army.

Sweden’s minority government on Thursday is set to introduce to the parliament a bill to restore conscription this summer for all Swedes born after 1999. It will last for 11 months.
The measure is expected to be adopted by parliament, subject to agreement between the leftist government and the centre right opposition.
Some 13,000 young Swedes are expected to be mobilised from July 1, but only 4,000 of them, 18-year-olds of both sexes, will be selected for military service based on motivation and skills.
They will be called up each year after January 1 2018.
Sweden's sonar message to Russian submarines: this way if you are gay
“The new security situation is also a reality, partly in the form of Russian power politics which has long been underestimated and downplayed,” Wilhelm Agrell, a security expert at Lund University, said.
Sweden is not a Nato member but has signed the body’s Partnership for Peace programme launched in 1994 to develop military cooperation between NATO and non-member countries.


On defence issues, Sweden is very close to its Finnish neighbour, which has with Russia a border of 1,340 kilometres.
The Nordic and Baltic region’s only non-aligned countries, Finland and Sweden, have stepped up their military cooperation with US, following concerns over Russia’s increased military activity in northern Europe.
Finland accused Moscow last year of violating its airspace when two Russian fighter jets flew on separate occasions in the south of the coastal town of Porvoo. The incident raised alarm in Sweden.
Russia has warned against Sweden and Finland joining Nato, an issue that has been debated in both countries.


Swedish man owns vehicle testing centre in China’s Inner Mongolia; likely the only foreigner there

EU strips AI, chips and quantum from industrial plan aimed at countering China

France to boost atomic arsenal, could deploy nuclear-armed jets to European allies

4 years into Ukraine conflict, Zelensky says Russia’s Putin ‘did not win this war’

Sweden

Sweden to bring back military conscription amid new security challenges

A soldier from the Swedish Armed Forces in a Patria XA-360 AMV (Armoured Modular Vehicle) at Hagshult Airbase, Sweden. File photo: AFP

The Swedish corvette HMS Visby under way on the Mysingen Bay on October 21, 2013 on their fifth day of searching for a suspected foreign vessel in the Stockholm archipelago. The search was being extended southwards to the open sea about 70 kilometres (44 miles) southeast of Stockholm, as Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said that more military exercises were being carried out in the Baltic Sea. AFP PHOTO / TT NEWS AGENCY / FREDRIK SANDBERG /SWEDEN OUT

News

World

Europe