IS SWEDEN REALLY NEUTRAL?, CAN THE SWEDISH MILITARY DEFEND THEMSELVES? AND MORE
Sweden has always been neutral, even during WW1 and WW2 and is not part of NATO even if it is considering a NATO allied country protected by USA
"After the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, Sweden has officially dropped the principle of neutrality, but continues to be non-aligned. However in 1995 Sweden did join the European Union and has since the mid-1990s continued to reduce its armed forces and became involved in more international missions in countries like Bosnia and Afghanistan. The continued reduction of its own national defense and the question of whether the country really could defend itself against an aggressor"
Source
"Sweden was the first Western country to establish an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and remained the only one for 26 years to maintain ambassadorial presence.
Few Western nations still have an embassy in Pyongyang, and the fact that Sweden does testifies of its important present-day role in the country. Through its embassy, Sweden represents consular interests of Australia, Canada, Italy, the Nordic countries as well as the United States.
Sweden often acts as an intermediary in negotiations between North Korea and Western countries, and has been especially active in improving the ties of North Korea and the United States.
The Swedish army is not as big as it could be and since joining the military is not mandatory it means Sweden has had a lack of soldiers so the army has tried do all it can to get young people to join
One such way was:
"After the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, Sweden has officially dropped the principle of neutrality, but continues to be non-aligned. However in 1995 Sweden did join the European Union and has since the mid-1990s continued to reduce its armed forces and became involved in more international missions in countries like Bosnia and Afghanistan. The continued reduction of its own national defense and the question of whether the country really could defend itself against an aggressor"
Source
"Sweden was the first Western country to establish an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and remained the only one for 26 years to maintain ambassadorial presence.
Few Western nations still have an embassy in Pyongyang, and the fact that Sweden does testifies of its important present-day role in the country. Through its embassy, Sweden represents consular interests of Australia, Canada, Italy, the Nordic countries as well as the United States.
Sweden often acts as an intermediary in negotiations between North Korea and Western countries, and has been especially active in improving the ties of North Korea and the United States.
The Swedish army is not as big as it could be and since joining the military is not mandatory it means Sweden has had a lack of soldiers so the army has tried do all it can to get young people to join
One such way was:
Another way is with ads that unlike American ads are much more realistic in its approach
But since 2017/2018 Sweden has been increasing its military because of Russia
The biggest reason is that Russia has been flexing its muscles toward Sweden, especially on the Island of Gotland where Russia has entered its sea and air space numerous times
2 incidents that happened in 2014
1. Since the 1960s Russian/Soviet Union submarines have been spotted in Swedish waters
One happened in October 2014
"A large military operation is launched to search for an allegedly damaged submarine in Kanholmsfjärden in the Stockholm archipelago.
Encrypted transmissions sent on an emergency radio frequency used by Russian units were recorded.
The sources of the transmissions were identified as a submarine and a military site..."
Source
2."...According to DN.se, on Jul. 18, an RC-135 Rivet Joint spyplane crossed the Swedish airspace, during a reconnaissance mission flown over the Baltic Sea.
U.S. SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) aircraft from RAF Mildenhall have been flying daily missions over the Baltics since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis...
Violations of Swedish airspace are quite frequent (and, sometimes they do not face a response by the Swedish Air Force‘s Gripen jets): seven violations were recorded in 2014, and a total of 53 aircraft have flown without permission inside Stockholm’s airspace since 2009..."
Source
in 2018 a war brochure was sent out to all Swedes in case of war
Below video has subtitles if you activate them
Sweden also lets foreign countries test weapons in the north of Sweden
Source
In short: Sweden was on high alert during the cold war then less so during peace times but since the 2010s more so thanks to Russia
Quora is a site where people can ask and answer questions so if you want more information about what people think about the Swedish neutrality in general check HERE
|
|
|
CONCLUSION
Sweden has a good army, Sweden doesn't need an army when USA protects them, Sweden claims to be neutral yet sell weapons to other countries, Swedish army is a joke...
Whatever you might think it`s another thing to add to your so called list when figuring out what to make of Sweden
