New Nato member Sweden boosts 2025 defence budget to 2.4% of GDP
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By 2028, Sweden aims to be spending 2.6 per cent of GDP on defence – well above the 2 per cent required by Nato.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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STOCKHOLM – Sweden on Sept 17 said it was upping its defence budget for 2025 by 13 billion kronor (S$1.65 billion), keeping the new Nato member well in line with the alliance’s military spending minimums.
The increase will mean that Sweden’s defence budget in 2025 would amount to 138 billion kronor, or 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), the government said, above the 2 per cent of GDP minimum that Nato expects its members to allot to defence.
For 2024, defence spending was expected to stand at 2.2 per cent of GDP, according to government estimates.
The Nordic country dropped two centuries of military non-alignment and applied for membership in the US-led alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – becoming the 32nd member
Defence Minister Pal Jonson told a press conference: “The security situation has continued to deteriorate.”
Further investments were also announced going up to 2030, which were expected to bring the total military budget to the equivalent of 2.6 per cent of GDP by 2028.
In April, a Swedish parliamentary commission recommended measures to strengthen the country’s armed forces and bring defence spending to 2.6 per cent of GDP.
The Swedish Defence Commission said the Scandinavian country needed to respond to new conditions, citing heightened tensions in Europe following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
It recommended additional army brigades and navy personnel, a rise in the number of conscripts trained up every year and the creation of Sweden’s first-ever rocket artillery unit.
In a statement, the government said the 2025 defence budget aimed to “increase the Swedish Armed Forces’ operational capacity by investing in personnel, material and infrastructure”.
It said the target for 2025, was for “8,000 conscripts to complete basic training”.
Sweden drastically slashed its defence spending after the end of the Cold War but reversed course following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
In March 2022, after Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, Stockholm announced it would increase spending again, aiming to dedicate 2 per cent of GDP to defence “as soon as possible”. AFP
