Undisclosed country receives nod to buy weapons from Sweden for $1.75 billion: Report

An undisclosed nation received a permit to purchase weapons from Sweden for $1.75 billion, media reports said Saturday.

The Swedish government declined to identify the country, citing confidentiality.

"If we give out that information, we risk disrupting Sweden's international relations with the country, which means that the information is covered by foreign secrecy," David Ahlen, head of the military equipment unit at Inspectorate for Strategic Products (ISP), told Swedish TV4.

ISP disclosed earlier this week an annual report that presented Sweden's export of military equipment for 2023.

It showed which countries bought or are allowed to buy weapons from Sweden in the future and at what price.

A total of 797 permits relating to the export of military equipment were granted.

Two of the permits stand out, accounting for 40% of the 28 billion kronor ($2.75 billion) of total exports, went to the unnamed country.

"We received an indication that they did not want it to be known who the buyer in the deal was," said Ahlen.

The country in question is listed by ISP as a "state receiver in an established partner country in the Western world."

If you compare it to the 56 other actors that have received permission to buy weapons, it is not possible to distinguish any Western nation that is missing.

ISP does not want to comment on if that country is mentioned in other permits or if it is the two specific stand out permits that are anonymized.

"The transparency regarding Swedish military equipment exports is very good if you compare internationally and the reporting is quite comprehensive, it has long been a request from the government. But it needs to be weighed against other considerations," said Ahlen.

He said disclosing the information could damage Sweden's relations with the country.

Specifically, what the export permits contain is not revealed, but it is declared within which material areas it applies.

Included among other things in the two stand-out permits is ML5, which includes bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles. ML1 is also part of the package and contains "smoothbore weapons with a caliber of at least 20 mm."

The two permits cover sales worth 11.7 billion Swedish krona ($1.75 billion)

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, (SPAS) which reviews the annual report, said it has never seen anything similar to this happening.

"For 12 years I have reviewed these documents and I have never seen people do this before. It is remarkable that it is happening and that it is such a big deal," Linda Akerstrom, SPAS policy manager and expert on arms export issues, told Swedish TV4.

She said the 11.7 billion Swedish krona, which accounts for more than 40% of the approved permits, must be about some larger system to be sold and it is difficult to review arms exports, even if Sweden has greater transparency than many other countries.

"I am concerned about what this means in the future, even if the ISP highlights that they are transparent, this is a step in the wrong direction," said Akerstrom.