COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s left-leaning government on Thursday reintroduced a military draft for both men and women because of what Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist called a deteriorating security environment in Europe and around Sweden.
In September, non-NATO-member Sweden stationed permanent troops on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, which Hultqvist described as sending a signal after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its “increasing pressure” on the neighboring Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Sweden’s armed forces lack 1,000 active troops as well as 7 000 reservists, according to the coalition government of Social Democrats and Greens, adding enrolment should …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
