Defence partnerships between several countries are becoming increasingly important in enabling us to develop and maintain military capacity both here at home and on international missions.

Nordic cooperation can be summarised as follows:

• It is a necessity if we are to be able to satisfy operational needs in the future,
• It increases security in our immediate area and enables us to jointly take greater regional responsibility for security,
• It will mean we are better equipped to handle international missions,
• It offers tremendous scope to boost efficiency, quality and to broaden our military capability,
• It enhances our capability of joint action.

Cooperation is not an independent security policy alternative and does not entail mutual defence obligations. It is a complement to our, i.e. the Nordic countries, partnerships with the UN, NATO and the EU. This work will be coordinated with other existing Nordic partnerships.

What does this mean for the Swedish Armed Forces?

The vision of future Nordic defence cooperation includes a number of common elements; for example, troop contributions to international peace missions, development, procurement, maintenance and further development of materiel, officer training and exercises.

Above all, it is about finding solutions that enable efficiency and rationalisation gains to be achieved through common readiness that should deliver greater operational efficiency, and also superior quality, cost effectiveness and ability to maintain breadth of capability.  

Another area is a stronger Nordic defence industry, with products tailored to both Nordic requirements at home and on missions. In the future, there will also be scope for common production and deployment of units.