![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Austin_Sweden.jpg.jpg\")
Austin, Jonson and Swedish defense chief Gen. Micael Byd\u00e9n, among other American and Swedish dignitaries and military officials, hashed out the next steps in their military partnership from a wood-paneled conference room inside Musk\u00f6’s rocky island cave complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the hour-long bilateral talks, the U.S. defense secretary toured the subterranean base\u2019s Maritime Operations Center and visited Musk\u00f6’s docks ahead of a joint press conference with Jonson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSweden\u2019s membership in NATO is going to mean a stronger alliance and a more secure Europe,\u201d Austin said against the backdrop of a Visby-class stealth corvette and an anti-ship missile system on a bright spring day in southeastern Sweden. \u201cAs I\u2019ve seen firsthand on this trip, the Swedish armed forces are an exceptionally capable and highly professional fighting force. And Sweden\u2019s troops and capabilities will enhance NATO\u2019s operations to deter conflict, including in the Baltic Sea region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also hailed progress toward a new defense cooperation agreement between the two countries that will allow them to forge closer ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sweden already participates in several international military exercises with the United States and NATO, including the U.S. Army\u2019s massive Defender Europe event, and is currently hosting \u201cAurora 23,\u201d its largest military drill in over 25 years at more than 26,000 soldiers from 14 countries. The U.S. has supplied Sweden with military equipment for years, and both countries are part of the global effort to defeat the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austin and Jonson reiterated their support for Ukraine in its 14-month war with Russia, and pledged to continue a burgeoning rotation of U.S. Navy ships, Air Force bomber task forces and high-level visits to Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The delegation then set out on the corvette to watch Swedish naval and air demonstrations from the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Camouflaged marines stormed a rocky island shoreline from amphibious combat boats that fired on imaginary enemy positions with the rat-a-tat of mounted machine guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The convoy of boats, led by the angular, gray camouflage corvette, wound through the forested island archipelago \u2014 past a minesweeper ship and a looming black submarine, cargo ships and underwater mine blasts. Two Blackhawk helicopters buzzed the procession; a pair of Gripen fighter jets soared overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a glimpse of the same force that would respond if Russian warships were to sail through these waters instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk\u00f6 fell into disuse in the early 2000s but returned as Sweden\u2019s naval headquarters in 2019. Leaders hope the area\u2019s geological advantages will help shield that core staff \u2014 and possibly ships \u2014 in case of a Russian attack. The base is also a maintenance site for ships that enter through yawning openings in the rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerns that Russia could lash out at Sweden, a longtime partner of the U.S. and other NATO countries, spurred Stockholm to seek formal membership after Russian forces launched its bloody invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two holdouts remain: Turkey argues Sweden has not done enough to extradite members of what Turkey considers terror groups, among other qualms related to alleged human rights abuses and a January protest in Stockholm where a Quran was publicly burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hungary is still blocking Sweden\u2019s acceptance as well, complaining that Stockholm has criticized Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked whether he\u2019s concerned about possible aggression from Russia in the months before Sweden earns the full extent of NATO protection, Jonson said his country already feels safer after earning \u201cinvitee\u201d status in the alliance. That allows closer collaboration ahead of the full benefits imbued by membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re militarily more integrated \u2026 now than before,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have received reassurances from the United States and other important partners about our security. We see a much more active exercise pattern from the United States and other countries in our vicinity, and that builds security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austin declined to answer to what extent striking a deal to provide Turkey with F-16 Fighting Falcon jet upgrades has smoothed the path forward, but urged Turkish and Hungarian officials to ratify Sweden\u2019s membership \u201csooner versus later\u201d to strengthen the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe all look forward to having a very capable Sweden sitting at the desk beside us in Vilnius,\u201d he said of NATO\u2019s upcoming meeting in Lithuania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Stockholm Tuesday for the first leg of a four-day visit to Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,46,11,36,19],"tags":[8631,8624],"coauthors":[3484],"class_list":["post-47521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","tag-hungary","tag-sweden"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"V2G7SVQ7H5CETLULUMHC2IMAQU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2023\/04\/19\/us-defense-secretary-forecasts-sweden-will-join-nato-by-mid-july\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Swedish-patrol-boats.jpg.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Auston_Jonson.jpg.jpg\")