Sweden will increase defense spending by about 300 billion kronor ($30 billion) over the next decade, the prime minister said Wednesday, calling it the nation’s biggest rearmament push since the Cold War.
The Nordic country drastically slashed defense spending after the Cold War ended and in the early 2000s, but reversed course following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The aim was to increase defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2030, up from the current 2.4 percent.
“We have a completely new security situation… and uncertainties will remain for a long time,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters, adding that it marks Sweden’s “biggest rearmament since the Cold War.”
The Nordic country dropped two centuries of military non-alignment and applied for membership in NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, becoming its 32nd member in March 2024.
Sweden has already decided on investments that are expected to put defense spending at 2.6 percent of GDP in a few years, Kristersson said, noting this already put it above NATO’s two-percent spending target.