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(CNN)Sweden has moved to reintroduce conscription “as a response to the new security situation” in Europe, the country’s defense minister told CNN Thursday.
A government act on Thursday reintroduced compulsory military service in the country for the first time since 2010, and for the first time on a gender-equal basis.
Peter Hultqvist, Sweden’s minister of defense, cited Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 as one of the triggers for the decision.
“After the Russian annexation of Crimea against international law, and their increased military exercises close to the border, we have a new security situation,” Hultqvist said.
“We see that we have more military activities in our neighborhood, and also that the illegal annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is of course part of it,” Radebo told CNN.
“We react to the activities and we don’t talk about threats, that’s why we have a parliament decision with a 70% of the parliament behind the present defense decision to strengthen military capacity and increase cooperation with the countries around us.”
Sweden, which is a neutral country, has stepped up its defensive efforts in recent months.
In September, it sent 150 troops to the island of Gotland, which sits between the mainland and a number of former Soviet Baltic states amid rising tensions with Russia.
A Swedish government report says that a full battalion will be established on the island by 2018.
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