Redaktionen

Försvaret kommer att genomgå stora förändringar när Sverige bli en av 32 allierade i försvarsalliansen Nato. ÖB har i sina råd till regeringen skrivit att han vill att det nordiska samarbetet ska utvecklas och stärkas, och att Norden ska hänga ihop som ett försvarsområde i Nato, med gemensam ledning där Sverige kan leda de marina operationerna Östersjön. Svenska försvaret kan också bidra med soldater och stridsflyg i Baltikum, och bland annat patrullera luftrummet.

– Vi kan Östersjön, vi kan Östersjön på ytan och under ytan. Vi kan också luftrummet över Östersjön. Och det här är en del där vi också har fått en rad frågor, vi vet att det finns kanske både önskemål och en inriktning att vi ska ta det här. Det här är ett område där vi skulle kunna visa handlingskraft och luta oss fram i ett tidigt skede och ta det ansvaret som en fullvärdig medlem, säger Micael Bydén. Läs intervjun

Nine months after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is beginning to fracture the West.

Top European officials are furious with Joe Biden’s administration and now accuse the Americans of making a fortune from the war, while EU countries suffer.

“The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior official told POLITICO. […]

“We are really at a historic juncture,” the senior EU official said, arguing that the double hit of trade disruption from U.S. subsidies and high energy prices risks turning public opinion against both the war effort and the transatlantic alliance. “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.” Another top official, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell, called on Washington to respond to European concerns. “Americans — our friends — take decisions which have an economic impact on us,” he said in an interview with POLITICO.

The U.S. rejected Europe’s complaints. “The rise in gas prices in Europe is caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s energy war against Europe, period,” a spokesperson for Biden’s National Security Council said. Exports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to Europe ”increased dramatically and enabled Europe to diversify away from Russia,” the NSC spokesperson said. Läs artikel

Norge vil etter planen overta formannskapet i Arktisk råd fra Russland den 11. mai 2023. Det uttalte statssekretær Eivind Vad Petersson (Ap) i Utenriksdepartementet under Nansens nordområdeseminar på Fridtjof Nansens Institutt torsdag denne uken.

Russland har i den anledning invitert til et ministermøte i Sibir. Selv om verken utenriksminister Anniken Huitfeldt (Ap) eller statssekretær Petersson kommer til å delta fra politisk ledelse, jobbes det nå iherdig i Utenriksdepartementet for en ryddig overlevering av formannskapet – og for å bevare rådet som det viktigste internasjonale forumet i Arktis.

Som en følge av Russlands invasjon av Ukraina ble aktiviteten i Arktisk råd satt på pause i mars. I sommer ble imidlertid prosjektaktiviteter uten russisk deltakelse gjenopptatt i arbeidsgruppene. […]

– Nå er det en utenrikspolitisk hovedoppgave for Norge å sørge for å bevare Arktisk råd som det viktigste internasjonale forumet for håndtering av arktiske spørsmål. Dette krever nå et intensivt nordområdediplomati, poengterer statssekretæren. Läs artikel

The Pentagon released its annual report on Chinese military power this week, and hawks in Congress and the Pentagon will no doubt use it as evidence that China is on the march militarily, and that the U.S. should therefore continue its buildup in the Pacific and its development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. But a closer look at China’s military aspirations in the context of current U.S. capabilities tells a different story.

The report says that China likely possesses 400 nuclear warheads, and that if production stays on pace, the number could more than triple over the next decade. But the United States has over 5,400 warheads in its stockpile, including over 1,600 deployed on bombers, submarines, and long-range ballistic missiles. Even if the Pentagon’s assessment is correct, deterrence would hold; Beijing would be in no position to launch a nuclear strike on the United States or its allies without suffering a devastating attack in return.

Indeed, the disparity suggests that the Pentagon could forgo a significant portion of its three-decade, up-to-$2 trillion plan to build new nuclear-armed bombers, submarines, and missiles, along with new warheads to go with them. Instead of continuing a wasteful and destabilizing arms race, the United States could move towards a “deterrence-only” posture along the lines outlined by the organization Global Zero. Läs artikel

Foreign military vessels are now required to notify Russia through diplomatic channels three months in advance before sailing north of the Siberia coast between Europe and Asia.

Can Russia claim absolute control of all navigation along the Northern Sea Route, or will the freedom of navigation act under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allow for innocent passage right through straights whose baselines are within territorial waters?

The question is again in dispute as the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia’s parliament, on November 30 approved the law promptly suspending the rights of foreign warships in what the country claims to be “internal waters”.

Three straits along the Northern Sea Route are important for the new limitations; the Kara Gate, the Vilkitskii Strait, and the Sannikov Strait.

Can Russia claim absolute control of all navigation along the Northern Sea Route, or will the freedom of navigation act under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allow for innocent passage right through straights whose baselines are within territorial waters?

The question is again in dispute as the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia’s parliament, on November 30 approved the law promptly suspending the rights of foreign warships in what the country claims to be “internal waters”.

Three straits along the Northern Sea Route are important for the new limitations; the Kara Gate, the Vilkitskii Strait, and the Sannikov Strait. Läs artikel

Mellan den 21 november och 7 december pågår en övning på Gotland. Syftet med övningen är att stärka Försvarsmaktens förmåga att möta ett väpnat angrepp från en kvalificerad motståndare på ön.

Övningen genomförs på grund av ett försämrat säkerhetspolitiskt läge. Rysslands fullskaliga anfall på Ukraina samt det som har genomförts från rysk sida före angreppet har inneburit att den pågående återuppbyggnaden på Gotlands regemente, P 18, snabbas på. Den långsiktiga militära tillväxten sker nu på kortare sikt och den nu pågående övningen, som benämns Tule, är en del av den forcerade förmågehöjningen på Gotland. […]

Totalt deltar cirka 400 personer i övningen. En stor del av dessa är personal från ett betydande antal övriga arméförband som ingår i övningsledningen. Övningsledningen har bland mycket annat till uppgift att följa, utbilda och utveckla den övade personalen från P 18 i allt från strid till ledning och underhållstjänst. Läs pressmeddelande

Twelve years ago, on 28 November 2010, our five international media outlets – The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El País and DER SPIEGEL – published a series of revelations in cooperation with Wikileaks that made the headlines around the globe.

“Cable gate”, a set of 251,000 confidential cables from the US State Department disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale.

In the words of The New York Times, the documents told “the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions, the decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and money”. Even now in 2022, journalists and historians continue to publish new revelations, using the unique trove of documents.

For Julian Assange, publisher of Wikileaks, the publication of “Cable gate” and several other related leaks had the most severe consequences. On 11 April 2019, Assange was arrested in London on a US arrest warrant, and has now been held for three and a half years in a high security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organised crime groups. He faces extradition to the US and a sentence of up to 175 years in an American maximum security prison. Läs artikel

Den sjette utgaven av Arctic Challenge Exercise (ACE) går av stabelen i månedsskiftet mai/juni neste år.

ACE 23 kan bli den første storøvelsen der Sverige og Finland deltar som Nato-medlemmer. Nå planlegges den sjette utgaven av jagerflyøvelsen.

Annethvert år siden 2013 har luftforsvarene i Norge, Sverige og Finland sammen arrangert øvelsen Arctic Challenge Exercise (ACE). Nå planlegges den sjette utgaven av jagerflyøvelsen, som også nå skal foregå i våre felles luftrom i nord, skriver Teknisk Ukeblad. Slik det ser ut nå, vil det delta totalt 145 fly, hvorav 100 er jagerfly. Til sammenligning var det i fjor cirka 70 fly som deltok på den da noe korona-nedskalerte øvelsen. Läs artikel

[…] We stand in full solidarity with Ukraine. We will never recognize the illegal attempted annexation of Ukraine’s territories, including Crimea. We reaffirm our joint efforts to further strengthen the activities within the International Crimea Platform aimed at achieving the de-occupation of Crimea. Ukraine has the inherent right to self-defence to ensure its independence and sovereignty and restore its territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. Russia must stop its aggression and withdraw its troops from the entire territory of Ukraine. […]

We commit to providing further humanitarian aid and support Ukraine’s winterisation efforts, in particular towards restoring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. In parallel, we will continue our efforts to support the reconstruction of destroyed Ukrainian infrastructure. We call on international community to support Ukraine’s reconstruction, including exploring ways to do so with funds from Russia. We recall the UN General Assembly Resolution of November 14, 2022 ES-11/6 titled “Furtherance of Remedy and Reparation for Aggression against Ukraine” which established the need for an international mechanism for reparation for damage, loss or injury arising from the internationally wrongful acts of Russian Federation in or against Ukraine. Läs uttalandet