NATO’s plan is for Sweden to serve as a military deployment area or “access ramp” in a war against Russia, writes Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s biggest news papers. There is a great need for an extensive upgrade of Swedish infrastructure when Sweden joins NATO.
NATO requires Sweden to upgrade its infrastructure to meet higher “robustness” requirements. This comes as a result of Sweden’s entry into the defence alliance, which is expected to be approved by all 31 member states within a week.
Sweden is an important military deployment area
The expectations of Sweden as a member of NATO mean that the country is expected to be able to support NATO’s military operations and provide the necessary support to a Western military alliance. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that Sweden is equipped as a staging area to enable the transportation of vital supplies by road, sea and air.
Svenska Dagbladet (SvD.se):
“Let’s assume that Russia gathers and deploys ground troops, combat vehicles and other logistics along NATO’s new eastern border. Russian warships and submarines leave the port of Murmansk and disappear from the radar. Suddenly, relations are so tense that the arms race is a fact and direct confrontation seems imminent.
Then, as in a pure war scenario, NATO’s plan is for Sweden to act as a military deployment area, where NATO can base and transport logistics and personnel before moving further east”.
According to reports from the Swedish Defence Committee, work is already underway to upgrade the Swedish infrastructure, which is part of the already ongoing upgrade work within the Swedish Defence. In particular, the Swedish Transport Administration has assumed responsibility for upgrading several roads and railways in the country.
NATO’s Article 3 establishes seven basic requirements for member countries, where a robust transportation system is one of the essential components to ensure national resilience. For Sweden, this is particularly important as the transport routes through the country are expected to be central to the defence of NATO’s eastern member states bordering Russia.
The details of which areas and transportation routes will be important for NATO to use in Sweden as a staging area are not yet fully understood and depend on several factors. Sweden’s membership of NATO’s regional plans will play a crucial role.
NATO headquarters in the Netherlands and the United States decide
According to Magnus Christiansson, Senior Lecturer in War Studies and expert on NATO’s defence policy and security in the Baltic Sea region at the Swedish Defence University, Sweden will be subject to NATO’s regional planning, which is determined at NATO headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands, together with Finland. Later, both countries will be included in the regional plans set at NATO headquarters in Norfolk, USA.
Although the details are still unclear, several areas have been identified as strategically important for rearmament, according to the Defense Committee. These are mainly east-west communication lines, especially the connections between Sweden Norway and Finland.
Per Skoglund, senior lecturer and expert on logistics at the Swedish Defense University, lists eight areas (concerning highways and railroads) that Sweden needs to focus on to meet the increased demands of NATO.
Intermittent traffic
The last time Sweden acted as a military deployment area was during World War II when the Swedish government submitted to the German Nazi army, which was allowed to use the Swedish railways to transport troops from south to north during the German war against Russia.
The intermittent traffic included the transport of German soldiers, weapons, and war materials by rail according to an agreement between Sweden and Nazi Germany. The traffic took place between June 1940 and August 1943 and violated Sweden’s neutrality policy.
Source and related
- Svenska Dagbladet: “NATO demands that Swedish infrastructure be upgraded”
- NewsVoice: Ulf Kristersson says that “Sweden made the decision” to join NATO – even though there was never a referendum.