Segredifesa: Italy-Sweden bilateral agreement, future partner in the Atlantic Alliance

(To Secret defense)
31/01/23

The bilateral committee between Italy and Sweden was held today at Palazzo Guidoni, headquarters of Segredifesa. The national delegations were led, for Italy, by army corps general Luciano Portolano, general secretary of defense and national armaments director, and for Sweden, by the national armaments director, mr. Carl Göran Mårtensson.

The secretary general, after having extended the greetings of defense minister Guido Crosetto to the Scandinavian counterpart, underlined how the excellent relations between the two countries, whose relations have always been marked by collaboration and stability, facilitate a fruitful exchange of information. In this context, the delegations illustrated their mutual positions on defense policy and national perspectives on the security situation in Europe, with particular reference to their respective initiatives in support of Ukraine within the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group (UKCG).

Mr. Mårtensson, in expressing his satisfaction with the topics being discussed in the bilateral meeting, brought greetings from Defense Minister Pål Jonson, with the hope that relations between the two countries can be further strengthened.

The bilateral committee made it possible to address various topics in the field of defense procurement. In particular, in the terrestrial domain, some European cooperation initiatives were discussed, such as the Multinational Cooperation on All-Terrain Vehicles (MATV) and the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS).

In the naval domain, the aim was to favor the exchange of information in the sector of heavy torpedoes, with the hope of future cooperation between the respective naval forces and, with regard to the air domain, the strong Swedish interest in the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), which has long been considered an extremely valuable initiative which will determine the future operational and industrial capabilities of the sector, also defining the levels of operational and technological sovereignty that the participating countries will be able to express.

In the space domain, and more specifically in the context of military cooperation on Earth observation capabilities, a collaboration will be developed with Sweden to evaluate the possibility of using the Esrange Space Center site in Kyrun - inside the Arctic Circle - with the aim of increasing the operational capabilities of Italian defense satellites.

In closing, the opportunity for joint procurement was discussed for the proposal of projects to be financed in Europe within the "European Defense Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act" EDIRPA, which will also make it possible to deal with the growing supply difficulties of equipment and resources, especially in this historical moment which has led Sweden to officially ask to be able to join NATO, following the increased perception of a Russian threat in the Scandinavian area.