Pål Jonson also confirmed Sweden plans to accelerate its military buildup, aiming to reach NATO’s new defense spending targets. | Narciso Contreras/Getty Images
He also rejected a bigger role for the European Commission in procurement.
“We’re not part of SAFE,” he said, referring to the EU’s new €150 billion Security Action for Europe financing tool. He added that Stockholm prefers defense buys to be steered through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation or the European Defence Agency. “I don’t see a role for the Commission in doing joint procurement. EDA should have this role.”
Jonson also issued a pointed message to European allies lagging on aid for Kyiv. “Not all countries are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to Ukraine support,” he said. “That bothers me.”
Jonson noted that the burden is being shouldered mainly by the Nordics, Baltics, Germany and the Netherlands. Sweden is now the fifth-largest donor worldwide, a position he said he would rather not hold. “I’d prefer Sweden to be at the bottom, not the top,” Jonson said.
Although Jonson did not mention specific laggards, Southern European countries like Italy and Spain, as well as France, generally give a much lower share of their GDP as aid to Ukraine.
Speaking of the relationship with the United States, Jonson said Europe must brace for a gradual U.S. drawdown of forces in Europe as Washington focuses more on the Indo-Pacific, even as it reaffirms its NATO Article 5 common defense commitment.
“Europeans have to shoulder a larger responsibility for conventional deterrence,” he said, identifying space assets, long-range strike and airlift as the areas that will take the longest to build up.