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Sweden also gave the US full access to their military bases.

• apelapan 3y ago
  Not quite "full access to all bases". More like "meaningful access to many bases". It would be rather silly to join an alliance and not at all allow your allies to store/access/manage equipment and house troops/suppliers at your bases.
  • hyggetrold 3y ago
    With US troops it's always a concern what they're going to get up to on their off time. The US generally will not let its troops be prosecuted under local jurisdictions which sometimes creates very messy situations.
    • apelapan 3y ago
      Even if the troops on base are under American jurisdiction, it's not like America is an entirely lawless country. Put thousands of young people anywhere and stuff will happen. Some people will behave badly sometimes. Given enough time and people someone will eventually murder someone. People sometimes get upset over the outcome in criminal cases, also within fully Swedish jurisdiction. Rightly or wrongly. On balance it seems like a reasonable trade-off to me. The Americans gets, to a certain degree, to do things their way and Sweden gets a certain degree of extra protection against Russia.
• hyggetrold 3y ago
  The really big deal with all of this is that the island of Gotland will now be available for NATO activity without a lot of red tape. Between Gotland (Sweden) and Bornholm (Denmark) that's like having permanent warships in the Baltic.