Sweden on Wednesday established a permanent military presence on a Baltic island for the first time since 2005, Swedish authorities said.
The move came in response to a parliamentary agreement adopted a year ago on strengthening Swedish defenses.
Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, Micael Bydén, told Swedish public television broadcaster SVT that the situation around his country had worsened in recent times, so Sweden had decided to establish a permanent military presence and deploy a combat unit on Gotland island, in the Baltic Sea.
He pointed out that though security in the region had worsened, there was no concrete threat against Sweden.
A unit of 150 soldiers from a rapid deployment force were stationed on the island, set to be replaced by regular combat forces in July 2017.
The Swedish government and three opposition center-right parties agreed in April last year to increase the defense budget by 5 percent between 2016 and 2020, in order to modernize weaponry, install a unit on Gotland and improve maritime surveillance after sightings of apparent foreign submarines.
The agreement said that there must be a permanent force on the island by January 2018, with the possibility of bringing it forward to autumn 2017.
Stockholm also protested against what it considered violations of its air space by Russian planes, though it observed similar incidents with planes from other countries, such as France or the United States.
Source: EFE
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