{"id":57922,"date":"2023-12-06T17:15:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T18:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=57922"},"modified":"2023-12-06T19:07:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:07:55","slug":"austin-welcomes-strengthened-defense-ties-with-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=57922","title":{"rendered":"Austin Welcomes Strengthened Defense Ties With Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III welcomed new steps to build upon the U.S.-Sweden defense relationship after meeting with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson yesterday at the Pentagon.\n<\/p>\n

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During their meeting, the two leaders signed a defense cooperation agreement that Austin said “will embody our shared commitment to the defense relationship between our two proud democracies.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We look forward to learning from each other as we continue to build our defense capabilities together and to strengthen our interoperability,” Austin said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defense cooperation agreement establishes conditions for U.S. forces to operate in Sweden, access to deployment areas, and pre-positioning of military equipment, among other items.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jonson said the agreement “sends a strong signal that we remain committed to addressing security challenges together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“Being interoperable and being prepared is crucial part of this commitment,” he said, adding that the agreement will stand as a cornerstone of the countries’ defense cooperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two leaders met as NATO<\/a> member states near their final approval of Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his meeting with Jonson, Austin offered strong support for Sweden’s accession.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As I’ve seen firsthand, Sweden is already one of our strongest and most capable partners,” he said. “The only thing better than [having] Sweden as a friend is [having] Sweden as an ally. So, I look forward to welcoming Sweden soon as a fellow member of the NATO alliance.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

He noted Sweden’s strengths in maritime operations and distributed air defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“When we add the capabilities of the Swedish armed forces to NATO, which is the greatest defensive alliance in history, we will get even stronger,” Austin said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The secretary also commended Sweden for its leadership in supporting Ukraine<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Sweden has shown outstanding leadership in supporting Ukraine as it fights Russian aggression, including providing $2.7 billion in security and humanitarian assistance,” Austin said. “Your support and donations have made a huge difference in Ukraine’s battle to defend itself from Russia’s cruel war of choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with Swedish forces in many areas,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III welcomed new steps to build upon the U.S.-Sweden defense relationship after meeting with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson yesterday at the Pentagon. During their meeting, the two leaders signed a defense cooperation agreement that Austin said “will embody our shared commitment to the defense relationship between our two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57925,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57922\/revisions\/57925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}