STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A British-led defence alliance of several European countries has invited Ukraine to observe its exercises, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference on Friday.
Along with Britain, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), is comprised of mainly Baltic and Nordic countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, and is intended for operations in the Baltic Sea area, the North Atlantic and the Arctic.
“Ukraine has been offered observer status for all JEF’s exercises during 2024 and 2025, in order to strengthen their capacity and include their experiences,” Kristersson said at a JEF summit on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took part in the meeting via video link.
Kristersson said JEF member states’ defence ministers will meet to discuss how to protect critical infrastructure, particularly under water. The group said in June it would increase cooperation to detect possible threats to critical undersea and offshore infrastructure.
Finland and Estonia are investigating damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a data cable in the Baltic Sea last week, which Finnish authorities said was probably caused by “outside activity,” raising concerns about the security of energy supply in the wider Nordic region.
Explosions last year to the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic sea between Russia and Germany remain unexplained.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik and Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
