Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced Monday that civilian military service will be reinstated with a target of 10,000 new recruits by 2030 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
«The government considers it urgent to prepare for an activation of civilian service. The Social Protection and Preparedness (MSB) authority will be responsible for carrying out preparations for the activation of civilian duty for municipal rescue services,» the Swedish government explained in a statement.
Kristersson announced the measure, which will be transferred to the MSB on Thursday, at a joint press conference with the Minister of Defense, Pal Jonson, and the head of Defense, Civil Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who stressed that the new government has taken office «at a difficult time» of crisis due to the war in Ukraine.
«We are going to bring Sweden into NATO and we took over the EU presidency just over a week ago. It will be a presidency characterized by war and crisis,» he told a press conference, adding that the restoration of civil service is a «very urgent issue» for the current government.
For his part, Defense Minister Pal Jonson has indicated that they will strengthen defense cooperation with Washington. «We have recently started negotiations on this with the United States. We are moving from being close partners to allies,» he said, as reported by the newspaper ‘Dagens Nyheter’.
Specifically, the pact is called Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) and will allow regulating the legal status of U.S. soldiers in Sweden, as well as other measures, such as investment in infrastructure or storage of defense equipment.
The United States has similar DCA agreements with several countries. Finland also announced in September its intention to initiate the process. Both Nordic countries have applied for NATO membership, a process that has been held up by Turkey.
Ankara refuses to admit these two countries into the Atlantic Alliance until they hand over all individuals accused of membership in Kurdish organizations declared by the Turkish government to be terrorist groups, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
