No, USA cannot force us to store their nukes.
Article 1 in the Defence cooperation agreement explicitly states that Sweden and only Sweden decides which weapons that can be stored on its territory.
Spoiler: In a previous post, in Swedish, about the lies about NATO and the Swedish - US defence cooperation agreement, I mentioned the lies about us being forced to store US nukes. Since I regard this lie about nukes as particularly pathetic, I have only briefly about it. So, I will be more detailed this time. I will also compare our DCA with Denmark’s, Finland’s and Norway’s because the liars claim that at least the Danish and Norwegian DCA’s make it impossible for USA to store nukes there. The liars think that they have an argument because the Danish and Norwegian DCA’s explicitly mention nukes while our does not.
Article 1 in the Swedish - USA defence cooperation agreement. No nukes in Sweden.
To begin with, as I wrote in the post mentioned above:
NATO-motståndarna hävdar att eftersom Artikel 4: “Förhandslagring av försvarsutrustning, försvarsförnödenheter och försvarsmateriel“ inte nämner kärnvapen så har USA rätt att lagra kärnvapen i Sverige. Nej. Den svenska ståndpunkten angående kärnvapen i Sverige framgår redan inledningsvis i DS 2024:2:
“Ett ingående av DCA-avtalet förändrar inte den ståndpunkt som har kommit till uttryck inom ramen för Sveriges Natoansökan att det inte finns skäl att ha kärnvapen och permanenta baser på svenskt territorium i fredstid. Riksdagen har godkänt regeringens proposition om Sveriges medlemskap i Nato med brett stöd.”
The above states that even though Article 4 in the DCA does not mention nukes, USA have the right to store nukes in Sweden. This is of course wrong as the Ministry Publications Series, DS 2024:2 including the DCA states explicitly that the DCA does not change the government’s position that there are no reasons for nukes or permanent bases with foreign troops on our territory in peace time.
There is a dedicated Q&A web site here about the DCA where you can read more.
So, the picture above showed the relevant article in the Swedish DCA, Article 1. The opponents to our NATO-membership and the DCA-agreement claim that Denmark and Norway can refuse nukes but not we. Let us have a look at Article 1 in the Danish and Norwegian DCA’s.
Article 1 in the Danish - USA defence cooperation agreement. Still no nukes in Denmark.
Yes, it is different than the Swedish-US DCA. One more sentence explicitly mentioning nukes. The sentence confirms thatn nothing has changes with respect to Denmark’s earlier position not to accept nukes.
And here is Article 1 in the Norwegian DCA.
Article 1 in the Norwegian - USA defence cooperation agreement. Still no nukes in Norway.
Article 1 is of course identical with the Danish Article 1 because the DCA does not change anything with respect to Norways’s earlier position not to accept nukes.
What about Finland. Finland is like Sweden a new member of NATO and had therefore no old agreements with NATO or USA about nukes on their territory. Article 1 in the Finnish DCA is as follows.
Article 1 in the Finnish - USA defence cooperation agreement. No nukes in Finland.
And Article 1 in the Finnish DCA is of course identical with Article 1 in the Swedish DCA because there were no previous agreements that did not change with respect to the storage of nukes.
By the way, Finland has a law forbidding foreign nations to bring nukes to the country. But Finland did not think it was necessary to mention this in Article 1. It is already crystal clear. It is crystal clear for everyone but those that hate NATO.