Will Sweden join NATO?

Just a citizen telling what the Swedish government says about a possible NATO membership application from Sweden and Finland. I hope this can help my viewers that have asked for this and please everyone, be safe!
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[@michaelweber1771]

Always wonderful thoughts and reflections. Always look forward to your next video.

[@anitalianinsweden8868]

Thank you so much! 😊

[@nhatuphong1579]

Thank you for making this vlog. I really am interested in figuring out what the Swedes and Finns think about their great change of country's future. Why is such crucial decision not voted officially by referendum but quick their government's decision in months ?

[@ebba279]

Super interesting video! Thanks for sharing!

[@anitalianinsweden8868]

Thank you! 😊

[@FINNSTIGAT0R]

Sweden used to have a much larger military, and I guess Sweden is now building it back, at least to some extent. That being said Sweden's equipment is pretty top notch. I hope we both, Finland and Sweden, join NATO but in the end of the day I'm pretty sceptical of Sweden's willingness to drop the neutrality stance it has proudly held for so long. And of course whatever Sweden decides to do it's naturally Sweden's own business. So I'm not saying Sweden should do this or that, just that I'd personally like it if we joined together.

[@user-bd7zi5uc1x]

Where Finland goes we will follow. Brothers and sisters forever 🇸🇪❤️🇫🇮

[@mrTycooleditz]

Love ur vids

[@anitalianinsweden8868]

Thank you so much 😊

[@enricoascanio6535]

puoi fare un video dove spieghi in che modo e perchè sei finito a vivere in svezia. Sarebbe un contenuto molto interessante. Un saluto da Napoli.

[@kristofferhellstrom]

Swedens new military budget is at 2%. But It'll take some years for the country to get there. But this shouldn't be a problem for a Nato application. If the budget was less then likely it would be.

[@Fistfury42]

Ser dig överallt på alla videor. Tror du att NATO är en bra ide för vårt land? Du är galen människa.. Bara snacket om NATO är det farliga.. Skulle Ryssland vilja gå in i Sverige är det garanterat INNAN vi blir medlem, likt det var för Ukraina. Hoppas du förstår allvaret. Ha det så bra, är inte arg eller så hehe.

[@scruffy7760]

A bit late perhaps, but still... This will be a couple of longer responses I think, to help understand Swedish military history and the current military situation. In 1939 Sweden sent 8000 troops to Finland to fight the Soviets, including one full third of the Swedish airforce, planes, pilots and groundcrew. Together with thousands of rifles, hundreds of artillery pieces and millions of ammo. In the 60s, 6000s swedes were deployed to the Congo on a UN mission, troops, armored vehicles and fighter jets, fighting a war of aggression on the UNs behalf. This included almost taking the decision to equip the swedish jets with napalm bombs (thankfully that never happened). In the 80s a Russian submarine, armed with nuclear warheads, got stranded in Swedish waters and the Soviets sent warships to retrieve it. The Swedish primeminister gave one order, "Hold the border". The Swedish armed forces prepared to sink anything that entered Swedish waters and the Soviet ships came to a full stop, not daring to risk the confrontation. In the 90s, during the Yugoslavian civil war, the Swedish led Nordbat mission (a UN force of Scandinavian troops, mainly swedish) became known as Shootbat for its tendency to open fire, ALOT, against hostile troops. From 2000 and onward Sweden has deployed troops to multiple NATO led missions, most notably Afghanistan obviously. As you can see, saying that Sweden has been neutral for 200 years is hardly correct and that claiming Swedish troops has not fought in wars during this time is, well, factually incorrect.

[@scruffy7760]

As for Swedish and Finnish neutrality. The Soviets forced Finland to be neutral after WW2. So, if Sweden had joined NATO together with Norway and Denmark, then that could have potentially encouraged the Soviets to invade Finland again, due to strategical reasons to counter NATO. So, Sweden chose to stay neutral to protect Finland. When the Soviet Union fell, we'll, there was no reason to join NATO. Now, that Putin might invade anyone for no reason, well, the situation has changed since the Soviet days. So Sweden went ahead with Armed Neutrality and built the world's 4th strongest airforce and trained 50k conscripts every year. I'm not gonna go into the nitpicky details of Swedens Cold War arsenal (Sweden was a military powerhouse), but I will mention perhaps the most interesting part of the Swedish armed forces during this time... Sweden actually had a nuclear weapons program back in the day. The US wanted Sweden to stop it, so signed a treaty to come to Swedens aid incase of invasion, but only if Sweden stopped developing the Bomb. Sweden signed the treaty... And continued developing the Bomb for another 14 years 😂 The Swedish government eventually admitted to this in 1985 😅 The big question is how far Sweden got with the program. It seems smaller detonations might have been tested, possibly. Conspiracy theories exists that an actual full-size Bomb might have been put together. It has even been suggested, looking at how far the program got in its development, that Sweden might have had the ability to produce up to ten Bombs per year. Now, all we know for certain is that Sweden tried to develop the Bomb, tricked the US that Sweden would stop in the 50s but continued to 1972. The actual results are naturally a well kept secret.

[@scruffy7760]

On the manpower issue. Sweden has trained roughly 300k conscripts between 1990 and 2020 (with a gap between 2010-2017 when conscription was put on hold). During the Cold War Sweden trained around 50k conscripts every year, so with the men trained in the 80s Sweden has a reserve pool of around 800k-900k men and women with some form of military experience, just like Finland. The real problem for Sweden is that Sweden stopped with repitition training some time after the Cold War (I did conscription in 00/01 and was never called back for instance), unlike Finland. However, Sweden has begun with repitition training once more, calling in people from at least as far back as 2010 (my wife did conscription that year and she's been called back, so that's how I know 😅). So while the going is slow, things are non the less picking up speed. I doubt we will return to 50k conscripts a year, but 15k-20k is very likely in a few years. The Homeguard will see a huge upswing in a couple of months. Currently around 20k strong, but with the war in Ukraine another 20k have signed up. So we could (no guarantees off course) potentially by next spring see the Homeguard at 40k strong. Ontop of that there already were plans to increase the armed forces personnel to 90k, a decision taken long before the war in Ukraine. The obvious problem is... These are numbers that won't be a reality until next year (Homeguard) or until 2030 (army and conscription). But we'll get there. Then off course there is general mobilization. If war is coming, it won't come out of the blue. We saw months of build up before Ukraine, with American intelligence agencies working overtime to share knowledge of the imminent attack. In Sweden it is law that if war is coming, anyone between 17 and 70 can be drafted into the defense of the country. So during the months of hostile build up, Sweden could draft everyone fit and able between 18-25 into the armed forces. The initially drafted would be everyone with a war placement after conscription (each conscript has a war placement for 10 years). So in a couple of years, Sweden could possibly have close to 100k troops ready to deploy reasonably quickly. 20k-30k career troops, 40k Homeguard and 30k conscripts with recent experience.

[@GTO250GTO]

Thank you for these informations, and for your opinion. I hope swedish government takes decisions for the sake of Sweden's good as you said, instead as you know in Italy government (and politicians in general) doesn't care about Italy, they care only for themselves. Russia invaded Ucraine this year but do not forget that Ucraine is bombarding secessionists since 2014 after a coup d'etat that wasn't really clear and after promoting discrimination towards russian speaking people in Ucraine. I do not think Putin is a saint, but I certainly think Zelensky is a puppet. About NATO I think the cons are more than the pros: you talk about "membership" but in the end It means that the "member" will be a U.S.A. servant. Indipendence is invaluable, in every aspect. Russia was very clear about the purpose of this war: destroy a menace for her security and till now they destroyed neonazi mercenaries, "strange" biochem laboratories, and they're helping secessionists. Russians had more than a reason to intervene. I know that in the past Finland and Russia fought for the land at theirs borders, but I really do not see why Russia should invade Sweden: apart from Copper and Iron and Trees, are there other raw materials in Sweden? Putin is not mad, instead think about the European commission: instead of trying to reach peace they immediately sent weapons to Ucraine, think about it: money vs life. And lastly I thank you for your quick making of this video, just after my comment asking for it.