On 26 May, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Nordic Countries, in partnership with the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation, hosted the 'Swedish-German Talk on Defence: Approaches and Insights from Stockholm and Berlin'. As Sweden and Germany both find themselves in an increasingly challenging geopolitical environment, the seminar sought to discuss shared defence-related challenges and ways of responding to them, highlighting differences and commonalities between German and Swedish approaches, and exploring opportunities for even closer collaboration and exchange of best practices.
Held at the At Six Hotel in central Stockholm a few steps away from the Ministry of Defence, the seminar featured as its main event a moderated discussion between Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson and Carlo Masala, Professor of International Politics at the Bundeswehr University Munich. Opening remarks were provided by Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden and Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, while the closing remarks were held by Ludger Siemes, German Ambassador to Sweden.
The discussion took stock of the recent changes and advancements in Swedish and German defence policy as well as the influence Sweden's conscription model has had on the new German defence recruitment strategy. Further lessons to be drawn from Sweden's total defence concept, as well as Germany's role in supporting Sweden's and Europe's security more broadly, were among the key topics on the agenda. Moreover, the need to invest in resilient societies, robust civil defence and improved defence capabilities in order to respond to a broader spectrum of threats was emphasized during the course of the seminar.
The KAS Nordic Countries' team would like to extend a sincere thank you to Minister Jonson and Professor Masala for sharing their expertise and insights with our audience. A special thank you as well to Carl Bildt and Ambassador Siemes for taking the time to join us and for contributing their opening and closing remarks. And of course, thank you to all audience members who took the time to join us.
Topics
About this series
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.