Swedish PM says ready to fortify crucial Baltic island

Sweden is open to reinforcing defences on the Baltic Sea’s most crucial island, according to its prime minister.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the move is taken amid a rapidly militarising Russia, Report informs via Financial Times.

"That is one obvious thing to be discussed with our new NATO allies,” Kristersson replied when asked if Stockholm recognized the need to fortify the island. "Gotland has always been important . . . that will be one of the many things to discuss."

Kristersson acknowledged that Sweden only had a "small" military presence on Gotland, which other NATO leaders from the Nordic and Baltic region have regularly cited as a critical vulnerability for the alliance.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson led Sweden into Nato last Friday, a historic shift in position from generations of neutrality sparked by war in Ukraine.