Sweden open to nukes under NATO: PM
Denmark and Norway, both NATO members, have both refused to allow foreign countries to install permanent military facilities or nuclear weapons on their territory during peacetime.
In a breakaway from the previous administration's position, Sweden's new Prime Minister stated on Tuesday that he was open to permitting nuclear weapons on Swedish soil whenever the nation joined NATO.
Sweden's new Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, was speaking at a press conference in Helsinki with his Finnish colleague, Sanna Marin, whose country is vying for membership in the Atlantic alliance alongside Sweden.
Marin responded when asked if the two countries would tolerate nuclear weapons on their soil, "We should not impose any restrictions... We have made the decision not to close any doors in the future."
Kristersson concurred.
"You will receive exactly the same answer from me as from the Finnish prime minister," he said.
"It's very natural for Sweden and Finland to act very jointly in these matters and have exactly the same formalization. So I have no other intention than going hand-in-hand also in this sense with Finland," Kristersson told reporters.
Reservations, though, could be handled "later", according to both Marin and Kristersson.
Sweden's Social Democratic Party, which was in office when the country submitted its application for membership in May, stated that it would attempt to voice "unilateral reservations against the deployment of nuclear weapons and permanent bases on Swedish soil."
It is worth noting that nuclear explosives are illegal to import, manufacture, possess, or detonate in Finland.
Denmark and Norway, both NATO members, have both refused to allow foreign countries to install permanent military facilities or nuclear weapons on their territory during peacetime.
The West: Double standards
Unsurprisingly, the West and its tools – the United Nations (UN), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not rush to condemn Sweden’s decision.
Meanwhile, the US is imposing additional sanctions that would prevent the Iranian leadership from conducting safe nuclear energy research. Whereas other Western countries and their allies including the Israeli occupation freely advance their suspicious nuclear program.