An unidentified "Western partner" buys 40% of Swedish arms sales

An unnamed country, which appears in documents as a “partner of the West,” has received permission to purchase weapons from Sweden for 11.7 billion kroner ($1.15 billion) in 2023.

TV4 indicated that this figure represents 40% of all Swedish arms exports allowed last year, which amounted to 28 billion kroner ($2.74 billion).

The channel quoted the head of the Arms Department at the Strategic Products Service (ISP), David Olin, as saying: “The name of this country cannot be revealed, so as not to risk spoiling relations with it, and this assumes the extension of foreign policy secrecy to it.” They requested that the identity of the buyer in this deal not be revealed. ".

The ISP website this week presented a report on Swedish military exports for 2023, which lists countries that have purchased Swedish weapons or received permission to purchase them in the future, along with the corresponding amounts. According to the data, last year, 797 arms export permits were granted, including two huge permits to an unnamed country.

Olin stated that the documents indicated that the buyer is a government party from a traditional country - a partner of the West.

"The transparency of Swedish military exports is very high compared to the international level, and the reporting is very comprehensive, which has been the government's long-standing desire. However, all other considerations must be taken into account," Ohlin said.

The aforementioned Swedish employee did not provide any specific information about the weapons in question, but despite this it has become known that they belong to the ML5 classification category, which includes fire-fighting systems, surveillance and warning equipment. There are also bombs, torpedoes, missiles and missiles in the deal. The list also includes the ML1 classification category, which includes smooth-bore weapons with a caliber of at least 20 mm.

For its part, the anti-war organization Svenska Freds (the Swedish Peace Society) criticized the imposition of ambiguity and secrecy on the identity of the party purchasing Swedish weapons, and stressed that this matter had not been observed before.