On November 9, the Stockholm Free World Forum (SFWF) held its annual conference in Stockholm with leading experts from Sweden, the United States, Europe and the Baltic region. This year’s theme was “A New Order? Europe’s Emerging Security Landscape“.
Among the keynote speakers at the conference were Kurt Volker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and currently the director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, András Simonyi, former Hungarian ambassador to NATO and the United States and currently the Managing Director for the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, Robert Pszczel, director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow and Jüri Luik, director of the International Center for Defense Studies in Tallinn.
– It is partly because Europe is in crisis and partly because of the lack of U.S leadership. Together we can do much more.
– Putin takes advantage of the refugee crisis as an opportunity to split and damage Europe. Do not let him succeed.
Many of the speakers discussed the importance of Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO.
– The assumption that Sweden and Finland can join NATO at any time is incorrect. If a serious crisis occurs in the Baltic region, NATO’s current members might not want to accept new member states who find themselves in a dangerous situation, said Jüri Luik.
The conference concluded with a moment of silence in memory of Boris Nemtsov and other murdered Russian dissidents.
Video recordings from every conference session can be seen here.
A list of speakers can be found on the conference website.
