You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.

My name is Ryan Evans. I'm the founder of War in the Rocks. In this episode, I sat down with

Paul Johnson during his recent visit to Washington. Mr. Johnson is Sweden's Minister of Defense,

and he had a lot of interesting things to say about how Sweden is stepping up for a new

and more dangerous era, as well as his country's support for Ukraine and its relationship

with the United States.

Welcome to Washington. How long are you in town?

I'm living in a few hours. I'm going to the Ronald Reagan Forum in Los Angeles, but I've been here for 48 hours now.

Great. And what are sort of your main priorities on this visit?

Well, we have the honor, of course, of meeting the Secretary of War, Pete Hedgeset.

I also met General Kellogg's, and we had a big space seminar here at the Swedish Embassy where Sweden

and the United States are cooperating when it comes to space, especially when it comes to security

and defense dimension of space. So it's been a pretty hectic 48 hours, but I enjoy being back

in Washington, D.C. again. It was two years ago since I was here last. We were chatting a little

bit before recording. It sounds like the two biggest issues that you're focused on. One, you know, Sweden's ability to defend itself. And two, supporting Ukraine. I know Sweden's one of the bigger supporters of Ukraine. I believe you folks just recently announced a $7 billion support package. Talk to me about how Sweden looks at supporting Ukraine, how it's able to do so

differently, perhaps, from other European supporters of Ukraine. Sure, a few words on that. So the size of

our Ukraine budget for next year is the size of the defense budget Sweden had in 2017. And we always

say supporting Ukraine is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do,

because we also see it as an investment into our own security.

And of course, everybody wants peace and no one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people.

I've been in Ukraine many times during this horrible war.

But we just have to make sure that it's a fair peace and it's a sustainable peace piece and we can have to assure that Ukrainians can negotiate from a position of strength.

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