Andersson: "Important First Step towards Peace Agreement"

Nineteen leaders from Europe and Canada met on Sunday in London to discuss European security and a lasting peace for Ukraine. Europe must show unity and take action, says Magdalena Andersson to TT ahead of Sunday's party leader debate in SVT's Agenda.

It's good that Ukraine is now also at the negotiating table.

During the meeting, security guarantees to Ukraine were discussed, among other things, something that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (The Moderate Party) - who also participated in the top meeting - says he is open to, provided that the USA is on board.

Needs to Contribute

He did not want to go into what Swedish security guarantees could specifically entail. Nor did Magdalena Andersson.

Of course, Europe will need to contribute the day a peace agreement is reached, but how the tasks are distributed among different European countries needs to be discussed. We'll see what exactly Sweden's contribution will be.

Sunday's Agenda on SVT revolved around the security policy situation for Sweden and Europe. The party leaders took turns emphasizing the broad consensus within Swedish politics.

Sweden is holding together. There is enormous value in us having such broad agreement on supporting Ukraine, on the need to invest in defense, and that we are now holding together in this difficult situation. Europe must also do so, says Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (The Moderate Party) in the broadcast.

The Liberals Want to Double Support

If the USA were to withdraw its support to Ukraine, all parties believe that Europe should cover for the American support that falls away.

We will, as the first governing party, now want to double the military support to Ukraine and the humanitarian aid, says The Liberals' defense policy spokesperson Gulan Avci.

Sweden currently allocates 2.4 percent of its GDP to defense and is set to increase it to 2.6 percent by 2030. All parties believe that the allocations must increase even more.