No, the US cannot force us
A short version of my previous post which was pubished.
Spoiler: In my previous post “No, US cannot force us to store their nukes”, I compared our defence cooperation with the USA, with those of Denmark, Finland, and Norway. The NATO-opponents’ claim that Denmark and Norway can refuse nukes but not we, is rebutted by this simple comparison. I sent a shorter Swedish version of the post to newspapers and today, 22 May, Sydöstran published it.
NATO opponents. Notice the female vatnik to the right.
Here is the English version.
No, the US cannot force us
NATO opponents claim that, unlike Denmark and Norway, Sweden cannot say no to American nuclear weapons being imported and stored in Sweden.
Their claim is based on a comparison of the agreements on defense cooperation that the countries have entered into with the United States. They are wrong. Below, the Swedish DCA is compared with the Danish, Finnish and Norwegian ones.
In the Swedish-American agreement, the English version of paragraph 2 of Article 1 reads:
"All activities under this Agreement shall be conducted with full respect for the sovereignty, laws, and international legal obligations of Sweden, including with regard to the stockpiling of certain types of weapons on Swedish territory."
The text of the Finnish-American agreement is identical.
The Danish and Norwegian texts in Article 1 paragraph 2 differ from the Finnish and Swedish. In their agreement, paragraph 2 contains a further sentence:
"Nothing in this Agreement alters the Danish policy with regard to the stockpiling or deployment of nuclear weapons on Danish territory."
The sentence explicitly mentions nuclear weapons. It is there to clarify that the new agreement on defense cooperation does not give rise to any change in the previous Danish and Norwegian decisions not to keep nuclear weapons in their countries.
In the Finnish and Swedish agreements with the USA there is no reason to include such a sentence as there are no previous decisions not to store nuclear weapons in Finland or Sweden.
Some NATO opponents also claim that since nuclear weapons are not explicitly mentioned in Article 4 "Preliminary storage of defense equipment, defense supplies and defense materiel", the US has the right to store nuclear weapons in Sweden. However, this is dismissed in the Ministry Publication Series DS 2024:2 "A conclusion of the DCA agreement does not change the position that has been expressed within the framework of Sweden's NATO application that there is no reason to have nuclear weapons and permanent bases on Swedish territory in peacetime.
The Riksdag has approved the government's proposal on Sweden's membership in NATO with broad support."
In addition, Article 4 is identical in Denmark's and Norway's agreement with the United States.