The Scandinavian nation should instead be funneling funds into global humanitarian initiatives, the US billionaire has said<\/p>\n
US billionaire Bill Gates has criticized Sweden for earmarking ever more money for the military, while slashing its financial commitment to international aid programs.
\nIn an interview to Sweden\u2019s Dagens Industri newspaper on Wednesday, Gates, who is known for his involvement in many philanthropic projects around the world, expressed regret that the Scandinavian country\u2019s budget bill this year does not include allocations for the Global Fund \u2013 an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide.
\nCommenting on Stockholm\u2019s growing military spending, Gates said that the issue \u201cshould be debated more.\u201d
\n\u201cIs this what people want to see, and is it really necessary?\u201d he inquired.
\nForeign Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa responded to Gates\u2019 criticism by defending the country\u2019s shift in priorities.
\n\u201dIf we don\u2019t want our children to speak Russian in the future, we need to have a very strong defense,\u201d he insisted, speaking to TT news agency.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Sweden eyeing own nukes \u2013 Times<\/p>\n
Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Sweden abandoned its centuries-long neutrality and applied for NATO membership, which it was granted two years later.
\nIn July, state broadcaster SVT reported that the Swedish government intended to raise the maximum conscription age for former military officers from 47 to 70 as part of its push to double personnel to 115,000 by 2030.
\nEarlier this year, the country\u2019s parliament also passed legislation pledging an additional 300 billion kronor ($31.4 billion) in spending on the armed forces, on top of annual budget increases.
\nAt a summit in The Hague in June, NATO member states committed to increasing defense spending from the previous threshold of 2% to 5% of GDP by 2035.
\nThe European Union, of which Sweden is also a member, has similarly approved several programs aimed at boosting military spending this year, including the \u20ac800 billion ReArm Europe initiative.
\nSpeaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed claims that Moscow harbors aggressive plans toward Sweden.
\nPutin similarly described claims of imminent Russian aggression against EU member states as a \u201cnonsense mantra,\u201d calling the very idea \u201cinconceivable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Scandinavian nation should instead be funneling funds into global humanitarian initiatives, the US billionaire has said US billionaire Bill Gates has criticized Sweden for earmarking ever more money for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}