Sweden eyes purchase of combat vehicles with Norway, Lithuania, Finland

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Dutch service members and a CV90 fighting vehicle are seen during NATO Exercise Trident Juncture, Nov. 4, 2018. (Photo by Hille Hillinga, Mediacentrum Defensie (MCD) via DVIDS)

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden, Lithuania, Norway and Finland are considering a coordinated acquisition of hundreds of CV90 infantry combat vehicles made by BAE Systems, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday.

The four countries are now drafting a statement of intent on cooperation for a purchase of the military vehicles, Kristersson told a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Gintautas Paluckas.

Countries in the Nordic and Baltic region, five of which border Russia, are sharply raising defence spending due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and U.S. demands that European NATO members take on more responsibility for their own security.

"We haven't made all the decisions yet, but the faster we make the decisions, the faster they could be delivered as well to national armed forces," Kristersson said.

"We are at least discussing several hundreds of vehicles and they are quite costly," he added.

The CV90 is produced by a Sweden-based subsidiary of Britain's BAE Systems, Europe's biggest defence company.

 (Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Terje Solsvik)