The Moderate, Christian Democrat and Centre parties reached an agreement with the government to increase defence spending by 10.2 billion kronor ($111.9 million) between 2016 and 2020.
Sweden's Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist announcing the deal. Photo: TT
Friday's deal was met with some criticism from defence experts who believe that Sweden's centre-right parties should have fought harder for even higher spending.
“10.2 billion for defence is good. Now we just need 29.8 billion more for our defence to work for a week,” wrote political scientist and security analyst Stefan Olsson on Twitter.
10,2 miljarder till försvaret är bra. Nu saknas det bara 29,8 miljarder för att få försvaret att fungera i en vecka.
— Stefan Olsson (@Spesam) April 17, 2015
His comments refer to an interview in Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in January in which Swedish Supreme Commander (SC), Sverker Göranson, said that Sweden could only defend a limited part of the country for a week, if it was attacked.
The Liberal party — which dropped out of the latest negotiations because it was in favour of even higher spending — said the new cross party deal could come back to bite the coalition.
"The money is enough to clog some of the holes, but other holes will continue to leak," said its negotiator Allan Widman.
"This does not amount to a strengthening of Sweden's defence capability," he told the TT newswire.