Sweden’s Defense Minister, Sten Tolgfors, reveals in an interview that NATO membership is not on Stockholm’s agenda.

From Defense News: “Q. What is the government’s position on joining NATO?
A. Membership is not on the political agenda during this government’s four years in office because of an agreement between the four parties in government. I think it is much more important to talk about the content of our cooperation with NATO, which is extensive in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
In one month, we will perform the Loyal Arrow exercise in northern Sweden, which is a crisis management exercise based on a U.N. mandate. This involves Sweden and Finland, but also NATO as an organization and several NATO countries. This is a good example of how we can cooperate, increase our capability and interoperability.
We can use exercises like this to prepare better for international operations. We can do this within the existing framework of the country’s different membership profiles.” (photo: AFP)