Swedish troops exercise in the far North
NATO expands Arctic
military activities:
With the complete collaboration of the right-wing Swedish
Government, the NATO aggressive military alliance has been allowed to expand
its activities to military controlled areas in the North of Sweden although
Sweden is officially a neutral country. Many Swedes are concerned that their
country's neutrality is being deliberately undermined and Sweden being co-opted
into NATO's global aggression and military interventions in various countries.
Likewise in neighbouring Finland, pro-NATO propaganda is on the increase in
recent months raising concerns by Russia that the NATO alliance is building up
a confrontation military grouping on Russia's borders.
Russia
cannot see NATO expansion towards its borders as positive, as under certain
circumstances the possibility of military confrontation remains, the Russian
Prime minister has said at the Euro-Arctic Council’s forum. When a reporter
asked Dmitry Medvedev how the balance of forces in Europe will change if
Sweden and Finland decide to enter NATO, the Russian Prime Minister answered
that his country would have to react to such developments:
“This is their own business; they are making
decisions in accordance with the national sovereignty doctrine. But we have to
consider the fact that for us the NATO bloc is not simply some estranged
organisation, but a structure with military potential,” the head of the
Russian government said, adding that under certain unfavourable scenarios this
potential could be used against Russia. “All new members of the North Atlantic Alliance that appear in
proximity of our state eventually do change the parity of the military force.
And we have to react to this,” Medvedev noted.
Although Sweden
and Finland officially state that they are not actively seeking membership,
both nations cooperate extensively with NATO and have openly debated the
possibility of joining. Speculation over Sweden mounted after it warned earlier
this year that its defence capabilities were alarmingly limited. It was embarrassed
in April when it could not respond to Russian military jets nearing its border,
according to media reports.
NATO ... has a
military potential which can be used against our country in certain
cases," Medvedev said, as Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt looked on. "The fact that Norway is a member of
NATO has not had any negative effect whatsoever on the development of
cooperation in this part of the world," Sweden's Carl Bildt said in
response. These statements notwithstanding, Peace organisations in Sweden
and Finland have stated that they expect an official invitation to both
countries to join NATO will be issued from the next NATO Summit in 2014.
In June this year,
International Peace activists responded to developments in Sweden with a
conference at Kiruna, northern Sweden, the nearest large town to the areas
under discussion and issued the following declaration:
THE KIRUNA STATEMENT
PROTECTING THE HIGH NORTH,
DEMILITARISING OUTER SPACE AND REMOVING THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION
The International Conference on the High North and International
Security was held in the city of Kiruna, Sweden, on 28-30th June
2013. Representatives from a wide spectrum of civil societies and public
movements from a number of Scandinavian, European, Asian and Latin American
countries, Russia and the United States of America attended and agreed the
following:
Conference members recognise:
That we are facing major threats
to our survival through the continued pretence that security can be obtained
through aggressive foreign policies and military action;
That the ultimate consequences of these policies is the continued
development and threatened use of nuclear weapons and the exploitation and militarization of environments that should be protected for the benefit of all
humankind - such as the Arctic and outer space;
That the High North is being used
by an expanding NATO as a military practice ground in which to rehearse future
war fighting strategies and to test and develop new killing technologies;
That the US has established a
satellite ground station in the Svalbard islands in Norway which is used by the
military and therefore violates the Svalbard or Spitzbergen Treaty that
requires that the archipelago is not used for military purposes;
The rapidly increasing deployment
of space based military systems and the global network of ground based stations
(including radars, downlink and surveillance facilities) that support and
supplement them;
that the uncontrolled and
irresponsible use of outer space has resulted in that environment being
littered with debris that could eventually render it impenetrable;
The destabilizing effects that
the deployment of space based, ground based and sea based missile defense
systems have on undermining international stability and that they are risking
the possibility of reaching further agreements on nuclear disarmament;
That all states who have
signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should honour its
Article VI and “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures
relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear
disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict
and effective international control”;
The negative consequences
stemming from the stationing of US tactical nuclear weapons in a number of
European nations;
That US President Obama’s focus
on his “pivot to Asia”, the sending of missiles and warships to the region and
the encouragement of the construction of support bases in the region (such as
the one threatening the lives of the Gangjeong villagers on Jeju Island, South
Korea), is aimed at containing China and is increasing international tension.
We therefore call on all
governments, political parties, and members of civil societies and public
movements all over the world to share these concerns and urgently request them
to call upon:
The leaders of the Permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council to arrange an urgent meeting on
the revival of stalled arms control processes and to embrace all key areas,
including nuclear weapons, missile defense and conventional weapons stationed
on the ground, at sea, in the air and in outer space;
The members of the United Nations
to firmly work towards the adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention, leading to
nuclear disarmament, and we call upon the nuclear weapon states not to
obstruct the discussion of the Nuclear Weapons Convention in the General
Assembly of the UN;
All nations possessing or about to possess missile defense components
should recognize their destabilizing nature and seek instead, through
diplomatic processes, to reduce international tensions and work towards a
situation where cooperation, mutual trust and understanding;
All space-faring nations should
engage immediately in high level talks on the Prevention of an Arms Race in
Outer Space and the adoption of outer space as a de-militarized zone;
All states to respect and renew their commitment to protect the unique and vitally important regions of the Earth, such as the Arctic and Antarctic, and reconfirm that they are not the property of any one nation, and never should be, but are to be protected as a common heritage for all humankind and never used for military purposes.
The money and material assets
that will be gained from the above steps and other arms control and disarmament
measures should not then be redirected to other military projects but used
instead to help convert our militarized societies to peaceful ones that work
for the betterment of the social and economic wellbeing of all people – for
human rather than state security – and for dealing with our common problem of
climate change.
As declared at the conference in
Kiruna, Sweden, 29th June 2013.
No to War - No to NATO
