Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister: We Are Fully Ready for NATO Membership

EXCERPT:

BILLSTROM: "Yes, when President Zelenskyy visited Sweden just a few weeks ago, I was there and I stood at the press conference when our prime minister and the president made their speeches. Yes, it is true. We are training Ukrainian fighter pilots to be ready for the moment they can use the Gripen air fighters. We do not rule out anything in this regard. We also provided The Archer artillery system, the CV-90s, armored vehicles. We’re going to do more and we are also going to step up on our own defense spending. We are going to reach next year, 2024, a budget, which is now proposed to the parliament, a 2% spending ratio provided by NATO. So we are fully prepared for NATO membership. We will come with well-trained forces and well-equipped troops. We will come with capabilities in cyber, in new technology and with space technology being the only one of two countries within the EU with the ability to launch satellites, the other being France. Helping Ukraine is a long-term commitment from Sweden’s side. You know, a failure in Ukraine, seeing Russia win, would be the end of a rule-based world order, which Sweden cares about. It would mean that countries like Moldova and Georgia is next on the list, and who knows where we will end up after that. So, a failure for Ukraine is not on as long as we have something to say about it."