Sweden moves ahead with plans for new foreign intelligence agency
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative file photo — A Swedish Special Forces Command member participates in a live fire exercise during Exercise Emerald Warrior Spiral at the Eglin Range, Florida, April 11, 2024. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Ty Pilgrim via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
STOCKHOLM - The Swedish government said on Tuesday it was moving ahead with plans for a new foreign intelligence agency after past criticism that security officials failed to predict Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine despite signs of a military build-up.
Creating a new civilian agency for foreign intelligence, reporting directly to the government, had been proposed in a public investigation and given an initial go-ahead last year.
"As is well known, we have a serious security situation and we face a broad and complex threat picture every day, and this places new and increased demands on our capabilities," Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told a press conference.
"We also have new expectations of ourselves as a NATO ally, and as we now develop our intelligence structure, we will also better match the structures that exist within NATO and among our allies."
Like many other intelligence agencies, Sweden's Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) did not foresee a full-fledged Russian invasion of Ukraine, leading to criticism in an official review and from some politicians.
The new agency will work alongside existing authorities which include MUST, the Swedish Security Service (SAPO), a part of the police force, and the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), which is responsible for signals intelligence.
Stenergard said the cost of the new agency will be around 2.8 billion crowns ($302 million), resources which will primarily be transferred from the armed forces budget.
It is set to begin work at the turn of the year.
($1 = 9.2695 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik // REUTERS)
