After India and its heat, the Swedish cold.
Initially planned for last October and canceled after an attack targeting Swedish supporters in Belgium, French President Emmanuel Macron is making a state visit to Sweden this Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday, an appointment that comes at the right time to get away from agricultural anger and leave the field open to the Prime Minister and his general policy declaration.
It is a “particularly sensitive moment for our Europe”, affirmed Emmanuel Macron before the French community gathered in Stockholm on Tuesday morning, assuring that “for two years the return of war on our continent has changed the perception of risk and led to the Sweden on the path to NATO.
A way, before the jokes about France's sporting successes against Sweden, to set the scene for this visit largely devoted to the future of European defense.
Before the gala dinner to which he is invited with his wife Brigitte by King Carl XVI Gustav, at the head of Sweden for fifty years, the first French president to visit Sweden since Jacques Chirac in 2000, must speak this afternoon in front of young Swedish officers from the Karlberg Military Academy and during a joint press conference with the head of the Swedish government Ulf Kristersson.
The two men must sign a new bilateral strategic partnership, according to the Élysée, and defense will be at the heart of exchanges between the two countries.
Thursday, a decisive European Council for the future of support for Ukraine
“Faced with new threats on European soil, France and Sweden will take concrete measures to strengthen their defense relations, particularly in the industrial sector, and by becoming allies within NATO as soon as possible,” emphasize Kristersson and Macron in an article in the daily newspapers Les Échos and Dagens Nyheter.
Long neutral militarily, Sweden decided to enter the Atlantic Alliance after the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.
She announced that she wanted to reach the milestone of 2% of its GDP devoted to defense spending “as soon as possible”.
The country can count on a solid defense industry and France and Sweden have in common the fact that they have independently developed a fighter plane, the Rafale on the French side and the Gripen on the Swedish side.
On the eve of a decisive European Council for the future of support for Ukraine, France and Sweden will sign a declaration of intent on air defense and air surveillance systems, while the companies Saab and MBDA should conclude “in the coming days a contract on the development of the Akeron anti-tank missile”, according to Paris.
The other major theme of this visit is innovation “facing the challenge of the green and digital transition”, explains Emmanuel Macron’s entourage.
Before the French community, the Head of State praised the Swedish model, which is economically and socially demanding.
On Wednesday, he will visit the European Spallation Source (ESS), a scientific research facility on neutrons co-financed by France with twelve other European countries, in Lund, in the south of the country.