Sweden has changed its defence policy and would intervene military to help its Nordic neighbours and the Baltic States, the Swedish Svenska Dagbladet paper writes.

The paper reminded that the last Russian President’s visit to Sweden took place in 2001.   However, much has changed since then, especially in the Baltic Region when the Baltic States joined NATO in 2004.

Sweden has positioned a new foundation for its defence policy. It was discreet when on 16 June the parliament stated that we “should be able to give and receive a military assistance.” There is a Swedish declaration of solidarity with our neighbours. There is also an adaptation to the EU Lisbon Treaty coming into force on 1 December. The Treaty’s Article 42 provides that if a Member State, the victim of armed aggression, the other countries are obliged to provide support, the SvD writes.

The Swedish military has previously only defended its territory or contributed to peace efforts in far away places. Now Swedish forces could also be seen in our neighbourhood. This notion was confirmed to the SvD by the Swedish Minister of Defence Sten Tolgfors ‘Previously, we did not have a defence and security for the neighbourhood. That we have now. We cannot remain silent when an EU country or another Nordic country is threatened.

Could we help Baits militarily in a crisis, the paper asked the Minister: ‘If an EU country or another Nordic country is threatened, we would take a decision in each case separately. How to act depends on the individual case. It can be anything from civil actions to various types of support which on of them may also be of a military nature.’

Sweden will now review its operational defence planning. The war in Georgia 2008 was a watershed with decision to place tanks for storage on the Baltic island of Gotland.  Another signal to the outside world is that this autumn Sweden has twice shipped its military unites to Gotland and held military exercises there.

The paper claims that in the case of a crisis in the Baltics Sweden (and Finland, which has a similar solidarity clause) could be a base for allied forces.