US, Swedish defense chiefs meet in Washington for talks

WASHINGTON

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson met Thursday in Washington, DC to discuss bilateral defense relations.

Hegseth hosted an enhanced honor cordon for Jonson at the Pentagon.

In his welcoming remarks, Hegseth said NATO allies made a "historic commitment" across the alliance at the June 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035.

"Sweden has already led the charge and responded to this call for action...Sweden's support is vital for enabling Europe to take the primary responsibility for its conventional defense," he added.

Jonson, for his part, said Sweden has tripled its defense budget in seven years.

Thanking the US for its support for Sweden’s integration into NATO, he said: "We really tried to hit the ground running by not coming into NATO just by consuming security, but actually producing security."

On defense industrial collaboration, Jonson said Sweden "produces platforms in all domains. Right now, we are at the stage where we need more defense. We need to scale up production...I think there's many things our two countries can do together as well."

This is the moment for Europe to shoulder a "larger responsibility" for its own security, and also for Ukraine, he added.