Vantage Point North

NATO E3 AWACS (Photo: NATO) Sweden is preparing for a parliamentary election next fall. Security, both internal and external, will be a major issue that all parties must confront. Situation in the Baltic-Sea region is getting tenser by the day and there are serious security issues within the troubled immigrant neighborhoods of the Swedish cities. As the nation’s political elite, diplomats and military leaders gathered to a ski resort in Sälen to their traditional foreign and defense policy seminar, the leading opposition party, the Moderates, stated that their goal is a Sweden that is a NATO member. The party leader Ulf Kristersson is confident that the now ruling social democrats will change their minds and that Sweden will be a NATO member within the next decade. Kristersson’s comments sparked a furious response from the Swedish defense minister Peter Hultqvist. According to Hultqvist the Social Democrats will maintain the traditional neutrality and co-operation and r...

A Finnish energy company Fortum has been negotiating with the German E.ON to buy a German energy company called Uniper. The deal has been controversial in Finland as it would include a large number of coal fired power plants that do not fit the Fortum’s strategy of becoming a sustainable and green energy producer. As 50,8 % of Fortum is owned by the Finnish government, the deal has an obvious political angle. (Photo: Nord Stream) The most disturbing aspect of the deal is that Uniper owns a 950 Million € share of the Russo-German gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 . The Finnish minister responsible for directing the state owned companies is the Center Party’s Mika Lintilä. He stated that he didn’t have any information about the Uniper’s share of the gas pipeline. He also stated that the Finnish government would not veto the deal even if it would link Finland to the controversial pipeline and Russian geopolitical interests. Finland, unlike the Baltic States and Sweden,...