Finland & Sweden Join NATO

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Why NATO Countries Say Russia Is Weaponizing Migrants | WSJ​

Mar 4, 2024
Finland closed its border checkpoints with Russia in late 2023 over an influx of migrants. It’s something European leaders have described as an act of “hybrid warfare.”

WSJ’s Ann Simmons explains why Helsinki says Moscow is behind the surge and why European leaders say Russia is weaponizing migration.


4:24
 

An army marches on its stomach: military rations across the Alliance​


How do NATO Allies feed their militaries during operations and exercises that often take them through extreme climates, from snowy mountains to scorching deserts? The right military rations ensure that troops have enough strength and endurance to fulfil all the challenging tasks required – and the best rations remind them of their homelands, serving up some of their favourite meals while they are deployed thousands of miles away from home. Read on to discover the diverse culinary world of NATO military rations!

More:

 

What Sweden brings to NATO​

The traditionally neutral country has built a formidable military-industrial complex — something that will bolster the alliance as it faces Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sweden is joining NATO, and it's not coming empty-handed.

Sweden's membership is a huge geopolitical boost for NATO. Alliance members now encircle the Baltic Sea (with the exception of the narrow entry to St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad). As well as making life difficult for Russia's Baltic Sea Fleet, it also gives the alliance the ability to monitor critical pipelines and cables beneath the surface.

Sweden is also a pocket military power. Despite a population of only 10 million, and last year spending only 1.54 percent of its GDP on defense, the country's centuries of neutrality have forced it to develop a world-class military-industrial complex.

It makes everything from Saab JAS 39 Gripen single-engine supersonic fighters to Carl Gustav recoilless rifles, AT4 shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons, Gotland-class submarines, and RBS15 anti-ship missiles. It also cooperates with other military producers, with one example being the Stridsvagn 122, the Swedish version of the German Leopard 2 tank.

Sweden first applied for NATO membership in May 2022, along with Finland, just three months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Finland successfully joined the alliance in just under a year, Sweden's road to membership was elongated and faced significant opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

More:

www.politico.eu

What Sweden brings to NATO

The traditionally neutral country has built a formidable military-industrial complex — something that will bolster the alliance as it faces Russian President Vladimir Putin.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
 
Sweden is where all the crazies go for a sex change op.
 
Some NATO News:

www.highnorthnews.com

PM Støre: "Norway Will Reach NATO's 2 Percent Target Already This Year"

The Norwegian government accelerates the country's achievement of NATO's defense spending target. "The situation out there and the needs here at home mean we must strengthen the Armed Forces now. We must live with a more dangerous and unpredictable Russia," says the PM.
www.highnorthnews.com www.highnorthnews.com

www.highnorthnews.com

UK Aircraft Carrier in the North: “A Formidable Show of Strength”

The British HMS Prince of Wales is now the third allied aircraft carrier sailing in Northern Norwegian waters in under a year. The ship serves as a floating air station during the coordinated Joint Warrior and Nordic Response exercises. With this, NATO is showing great strength, says Norway's...
www.highnorthnews.com www.highnorthnews.com
 

IN FROM THE COLD: REBUILDING SWEDEN’S CIVIL DEFENSE FOR THE NATO ERA​

“It’s time for action!” “There could be war in Sweden.” “Who are you if war comes?”

These were the messages and no longer rhetorical questions that Sweden’s top political and military leadership shared at Sweden’s annual security conference in early January 2024. Since 2017, officials have not ruled out the possibility of an armed attack. But restating these challenging questions in such stark terms caused a ripple effect across society, with a slew of headlines such as: “Did the Supreme Commander and government go too far with their warnings?” and “Many children are now afraid of war coming to Sweden”. Supreme Commander Micael Bydén later went onto children’s television programming to reiterate that he was not worried about war coming to Sweden right now, but about the country’s and citizens’ preparedness to respond to crisis or war in the future. Indeed, Sweden is facing the “gravest security crisis since World War II.” As a result, it is not only attempting to rapidly rebuild its military capabilities but its civil defense as well.

Sweden’s civil defense is the counterpart to military defense. Together, they constitute the country’s “total defense,” which draws upon the collective strength of the armed forces, public and private sector, and civil society to withstand crisis or an armed attack. After decades of cuts in defense expenditures in the post-Cold War era, infamously referred as a “strategic time out,” Swedish civil defense is starting from historically low levels. In the face of Russian aggression, Sweden is rediscovering its own total defense culture. Now in NATO, Sweden’s civil defense planning and capabilities can serve as a model for strengthening national and collective resilience across the alliance.

More:

warontherocks.com

In from the Cold: Rebuilding Sweden’s Civil Defense for the NATO Era - War on the Rocks

“It’s time for action!” “There could be war in Sweden.” “Who are you if war comes?” These were the messages and no longer rhetorical questions that
warontherocks.com
 
NATO should form a trading bloc and use a common gold backed currency, but keep the politics out.
 
giphy.gif
 

Pentagon’s Upcoming New Arctic Strategy: "We Talk To Norway, Finland, and Sweden a Lot"​

Washington D.C. (High North News): The US DoD's new Arctic strategy is right around the corner. It has been designed in close dialogue with allies – not least the Northern Nordics, says Deputy Assistant Secretary Iris Ferguson. She expresses admiration for Norway's 'double strategy' on balancing deterrence and reassurance in the North.

Norwegian version.

An important release in the field of Arctic defense is in the works.

“We have been working on the Arctic strategy for almost a year and are now very close to the finish line. We have a springtime frame," says Iris Ferguson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the US Department of Defense (DoD), to High North News.

She heads the DoD's Arctic Strategy and Global Resilience Office, which was established in the fall of 2022. An update of the department's current Arctic strategy from 2019 was announced last spring.

“The process has taken so long partially because we have taken a really concerted approach. We have worked with our allies and partners from the very beginning as we have drafted the strategy," says Ferguson and elaborates:

“After launching the office, we quickly set out to visit all the like-minded Arctic nations to hear from the capitals themselves about what they are thinking around priorities for the Arctic region and the various security interests that they have.”

“So, we have been doing a lot of signals checking with our allies and partners. They are a very significant focus in the strategy; our approach is to act in alignment, together and through them.”

More:

www.highnorthnews.com

Pentagon’s Upcoming New Arctic Strategy: "We Talk To Norway, Finland, and Sweden a Lot"

Washington D.C. (High North News): The US DoD's new Arctic strategy is right around the corner. It has been designed in close dialogue with allies – not least the Northern Nordics, says Deputy Assistant Secretary Iris Ferguson. She expresses admiration for Norway's 'double strategy' on balancing...
www.highnorthnews.com www.highnorthnews.com
 

Norway to hike defense spendings in mid-year revised budget​

The Government on Thursday added 7 billion kroner (€590 million) to Norway’s defense budget for 2024.

“This is for expenditures that can’t wait,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said at a press-briefing in Oslo.

“Buildings, facilities, maintenance, air defense and ammunitions,” Støre elaborated. Money will be made available for more training, exercises and operations for the second half of 2024.

More:

thebarentsobserver.com

Norway to hike defense spendings in mid-year revised budget

The Government on Thursday added 7 billion kroner (€590 million) to Norway’s defense budget for 2024.
thebarentsobserver.com thebarentsobserver.com
 
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