Swedish, US troops drill on remilitarized Baltic Sea island

VISBY, Sweden — Having to defend Gotland against a foreign invasion seemed such a far-fetched notion to Swedish decision-makers at the start of the century that they demilitarized the Baltic Sea island.

Now, the Swedish Armed Forces are back, and they are practicing with U.S. troops not just how to defend the island with a population of 58,000, but how to take it back from a foreign aggressor.

U.S. Marines have conducted air drops and amphibious landings on Gotland as part of a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea.

Though the annual BALTOPS exercise isn’t held in response to a specific threat, this year’s edition comes amid heightened tensions with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. About 7,000 military personnel and 45 ships from 14 NATO countries, as well as Sweden and Finland, took part.

Despite their non-aligned status, the two Nordic have practiced regularly with NATO countries, and their governments decided in the wake of the Ukraine war to seek full membership in the Western military alliance.

“I’m feeling really prepared. I mean, we have made a big deployment on Gotland, and we will defend Gotland,” Swedish Col. Magnus Frykvall, the island’s regiment commander, said as military hardware was being deployed on the coast. “It’s a really hard task to take a defended island.”

Strategically located in the middle of the southern part of the Baltic Sea, Gotland has seen foreign invasions throughout its history, the most recent one in 1808, when Russian forces briefly occupied it.

US troops on Gotland beach following amphibious landing drill, part of BALTOPS annual Baltic Sea military exercise in Tofta, Gotland, Sweden on Wednesday, June, 7, 2022. (James Brooks/AP)

But after the Cold War ended, Sweden felt the risk of a Russian aggression was so remote it refocused its armed forces on foreign peacekeeping operations rather than territorial defense. The Gotland regiment was closed in 2005 as Sweden downsized its military.

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014 led to a rethink, and a new regiment was established on Gotland in 2018. There are now around 400 Swedish soldiers permanently based on the island. Further reinforcements are planned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nonetheless, many Gotlanders feel Sweden would not be able to defend the island on its own.

“If we were to be invaded, we wouldn’t stand a chance because our defense is too small. We have a really modern and good defense, but it’s too small,” said Lars Söderdahl, a 33-year-old chef in the island’s main town, Visby.

Sweden, which has stayed out of military alliances since the Napoleonic Wars, applied for NATO membership together with Finland in a historic move last month. NATO’s existing 30 members are set to discuss the issue this month. Turkey has threatened to hold up the applications over the two countries’ perceived support for Kurdish groups.

Finland and Sweden have sought security assurances from the U.S. and other NATO countries during the application period.

Kicking off the BALTOPS exercises last weekend in Stockholm, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was important for the NATO allies “to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden.”

Their membership in the alliance would leave Russia in a difficult military position, with the Baltic Sea encircled by NATO members except for in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and the Russian city of St. Petersburg and its surrounding areas.

The strategic importance of Gotland, a popular summer vacation spot for Swedes, is often viewed in relation to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are particularly worried about any Russian aggression following the Ukraine invasion. Gotland is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from mainland Sweden and 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the coast of Latvia,

“The thing is, from here, you make supplying and supporting the Baltic states a lot easier or a lot more difficult, depending on who is in control of the island,” Mikael Norrby, an Uppsala University academic, told The Associated Press.

Coinciding with the NATO exercises, Russia’s Baltic Fleet launched its own military exercises this week. The fleet’s press service referred to the maneuvers Tuesday as a scheduled exercise focused on “various types of security tasks,” including the tracking and destruction of enemy submarines.

“There are more than 20 warships and boats in the sea ranges of the Baltic Fleet, performing combat tasks both individually and as part of ship search-and-strike groups and ship strike groups,” the press service said in a statement.

It added that corvettes, patrol ships, small missile carriers, anti-submarine vessels, minesweepers, and landing hovercraft were among the vessels taking part in the exercises.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

瑞典维斯比——在本世纪初，瑞典决策者认为保卫哥特兰岛免受外国入侵是一个遥不可及的想法，因此他们将这个波罗的海岛屿非军事化了。

现在，瑞典武装部队已经回归，他们正与美军一起演练，不仅要学习如何保卫这个拥有 58,000 人口的岛屿，还要学习如何从外国侵略者手中夺回它。

作为北约在波罗的海举行的演习的一部分，美国海军陆战队在哥特兰岛进行了空投和两栖登陆作战。

尽管一年一度的“波罗的海行动”演习并非针对特定威胁而举行，但今年的演习正值俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后与北约关系高度紧张之际。来自14个北约国家以及瑞典和芬兰的约7000名军事人员和45艘舰艇参加了此次演习。

尽管这两个北欧国家是非结盟国家，但它们一直定期与北约国家进行联合演习，而且在乌克兰战争之后，两国政府决定寻求加入这个西方军事联盟。

“我感觉准备非常充分。我的意思是，我们已经在哥特兰岛部署了大量兵力，我们将保卫哥特兰岛，”该岛团长、瑞典上校马格努斯·弗里克瓦尔在海岸部署军事装备时说道。“攻占一座防守严密的岛屿是一项非常艰巨的任务。”

哥特兰岛位于波罗的海南部中心地带，地理位置十分重要，历史上曾多次遭受外国入侵，最近一次是在 1808 年，当时俄罗斯军队短暂占领了该岛。

2022年6月7日星期三，在瑞典哥特兰岛托夫塔举行的波罗的海年度军事演习“波罗的海行动”（BALTOPS）期间，美军士兵在哥特兰岛海滩进行两栖登陆演习。（James Brooks/AP）

但冷战结束后，瑞典认为俄罗斯侵略的风险微乎其微，因此将军队的重心从领土防御转向海外维和行动。随着瑞典缩减军力，哥特兰岛团于2005年解散。

2014年俄罗斯吞并乌克兰克里米亚半岛后，瑞典重新考虑了驻哥特兰岛的战略部署，并于2018年在该岛建立了一个新的团。目前约有400名瑞典士兵常驻该岛。在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后，瑞典计划进一步增派兵力。

尽管如此，许多哥特兰岛居民认为瑞典无法独自保卫该岛。

“如果我们遭到入侵，我们毫无胜算，因为我们的防御力量太弱。我们的防御体系非常现代化且完善，但规模太小了，”岛上主要城镇维斯比的33岁厨师拉尔斯·索德达尔说道。

自拿破仑战争以来一直未加入任何军事联盟的瑞典，上个月与芬兰共同申请加入北约，此举具有历史意义。北约现有的30个成员国将于本月讨论此事。土耳其威胁称，由于瑞典和芬兰被认为支持库尔德武装，土耳其将阻挠两国的入盟申请。

在申请加入北约期间，芬兰和瑞典曾向美国和其他北约国家寻求安全保证。

上周末在斯德哥尔摩举行的“波罗的海行动”演习启动仪式上，美国参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军表示，北约盟国“向芬兰和瑞典展现团结”非常重要。

加入该联盟将使俄罗斯处于艰难的军事地位，波罗的海将被北约成员国包围，只有俄罗斯的波罗的海飞地加里宁格勒以及俄罗斯城市圣彼得堡及其周边地区除外。

哥特兰岛是瑞典人喜爱的夏季度假胜地，其战略重要性通常与波罗的海三国——爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚和立陶宛——联系起来看待。这三个国家尤其担忧俄罗斯在乌克兰入侵后可能采取的任何侵略行动。哥特兰岛距离瑞典大陆约100公里（60英里），距离拉脱维亚海岸约160公里（100英里）。

“关键在于，从这里开始，向波罗的海国家提供物资和支持会变得容易得多或困难得多，这取决于谁控制着这个岛屿，”乌普萨拉大学学者米凯尔·诺尔比告诉美联社。

与北约军演同期，俄罗斯波罗的海舰队本周也启动了自己的军事演习。该舰队新闻处周二称，此次演习是一次计划内的演习，重点是“各类安全任务”，包括追踪和摧毁敌方潜艇。

“波罗的海舰队海域有 20 多艘军舰和舰艇，它们既单独执行作战任务，也作为舰艇搜索打击群和舰艇打击群的一部分执行作战任务，”新闻处在一份声明中说。

声明还补充说，参加演习的舰艇包括轻型护卫舰、巡逻舰、小型导弹发射舰、反潜舰、扫雷舰和登陆气垫船。

丹麦哥本哈根的 Jan M. Olsen 对本报道亦有贡献。