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NATO

Swedish PM hails ‘very productive’ Nato meeting with Turkish president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said another meeting would be held later this month after hosting Tuesday Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who was hoping to persuade Turkey to drop its opposition to Sweden joining Nato.

Swedish PM hails 'very productive' Nato meeting with Turkish president
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hand with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (L) during a press conference following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on November 8, 2022. Photo: Adem Altan/AFP

“We hope to see a more positive picture when the joint meeting is organised in Stockholm towards the end of the month,” Erdogan said, without specifying the date.

The Turkish leader added that he “sincerely wished” that Sweden joined the US-led military alliance.

“We understand their security concerns, and we want Sweden to respond to ours,” said Erdogan, who has blocked NATO membership bids from the Scandinavian nation and its neighbour Finland, accusing them of harbouring outlawed Kurdish militants.

Erdogan has demanded Finland and Sweden extradite members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has battled against the Turkish state for decades and is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. Kristersson said “the watchword in Sweden is to fight terrorism” and described his meeting with Erdogan in Ankara as “very productive”.

Kristersson was hoping to persuade Turkey to drop its opposition to Sweden joining the US-led military alliance, with Ankara accusing Stockholm and Finland of harbouring outlawed Kurdish militants.

He described his meeting with Erdogan as “very productive”.

“Sweden will live up to all the obligations made to Turkey in countering the terrorist threat,” he said.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Nordic neighbours abandoned their long-held policy of non-alignment and applied to join NATO.

Erdogan — who is seeking re-election next year — is in a position of strength, having persuaded Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop blockading Ukraine’s grain exports.

Writing in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on Monday, Erdogan’s advisor Fahrettin Altun voiced “cautious optimism” that the new right-wing government in Stockholm would take “concrete measures” to meet Ankara’s concerns.

Turkey accuses Sweden in particularly of leniency towards the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara says it provided Sweden and Finland in June with a list of people it wanted extradited.

Since then, Sweden has authorised one extradition for fraud. Both Stockholm and Helsinki say that extradition decisions are made by the courts. The PKK is blacklisted by Ankara and most of its Western allies. But the YPG has been a key player in the US-led military alliance combatting the Islamic State group in Syria.

While Sweden has in the past voiced support for the YPG and its political wing, Kristersson’s government appears to be distancing itself.

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MILITARY

EXPLAINED: Is national service compulsory in Sweden?

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently revealed plans to introduce compulsory national service, referencing Sweden as an inspiration for this. But how does national service work in Sweden, and is it compulsory for everyone?

EXPLAINED: Is national service compulsory in Sweden?

Although Sweden hasn’t formally been involved in a war since 1814, the country has had some sort of conscription system since the 17th century, excluding a seven-year window between 2010 and 2017, where it was scrapped (or more specifically, “suspended in peacetime”).

Historically, it applied to men only, but was extended to include women in 2010.

Is it mandatory?

Yes and no.

When a Swedish citizen turns 18, they receive a letter from The Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency asking for information on their health, interests and education, in order to determine whether they should be called up for compulsory military service, officially known as värnplikt (“duty to protect”). 

This document is sent out to all Swedes turning 18 in a given year, and it is mandatory to fill this in, with a few exceptions, such as people who receive benefits from the Social Insurance Agency or residential care homes for children and young people (like HVB-hem or SiS-hem).

Having said that, it is by no means every Swede turning 18 in a given year who actually ends up carrying out military service.

In 2023, the agency collected information on 102,286 young people in Sweden turning 18 that year, with 36,420 called up for testing.

If you don’t turn up to these tests, known in Swedish as mönstringen, you can be sentenced to brott mot totalförsvarsplikten or “crime against the total defence obligation”, which carries with it a fine of 2,000 kronor or up to a year in prison.

These tests at the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency are mandatory, and include a theory test, a medical examination, eye and colour blindness tests, hearing tests, as well as an EKG test, pulse and blood pressure tests.

You’ll also need to do a general fitness test and a strength test, as well as an interview with a psychologist to determine whether you’re cut out for military training.

Each test will be scored separately, with your total points determining which course within the Swedish armed forces you’ll be assigned to. You’re allowed to express a preference, although you’re not guaranteed to get a position on the course of your choice. Military training (colloquially known as lumpen) takes between 9 and 15 months, depending on the course.

Not everyone who carries out these tests will actually be called up for military training – in 2023, 6,144 (around 6 percent of everyone turning 18 that year) were assigned a course within the Swedish army, where they were joined by an additional 1,166 individuals who had applied of their own accord. 

Those who pass the tests but who aren’t assigned a position in the army are placed in the reserves, alongside people who delayed their conscription (due to their studies, for example). People in this group could be called up to perform military service if Swedish security is placed on high alert.

What about conscientious objectors?

People who for religious or political reasons do not want to use weapons can apply to carry out weapon-free military service or vapenfri tjänst. 

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have to serve at all, but you could be assigned to civil basic training, which essentially means you’d help ensure that important services like healthcare, childcare or the fire services were still running if there was a crisis.

At the moment, there are no civil basic training courses for conscientious objectors running, although the government has the power to reintroduce these.

There is no programme in Sweden similar to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans for 18-year-olds to dedicate one weekend a month volunteering in the community, for example by “delivering prescriptions and food to infirm people”.

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