Swedish legislators to Asian countries: Build security alliances, bolster defense vs. Chinese aggression

China’s hostile actions in Asia are similar to that of Russia’s aggression in Europe, particularly against Ukraine, and countries like the Philippines should prepare by building alliances and strengthening their defense capabilities, visiting Swedish lawmakers said Friday.

Asian countries should also try to “de-risk” and remain independent from potential aggressors, which could resort to economic coercion to gain advantage in a major conflict, said Joar Forsell (Liberal Party), a member of Swedish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.  

“I think that something to learn is to build alliances, build very close alliances with like-minded partners, real defensive capabilities, not be naïve, buy new weapons, build the defense capabilities and also de-risk to ensure independence,” said Forsell, when asked what Europe has learned from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has brought the region in its worst security crisis since World War II.

“Sweden has learned that you cannot be dependent on a country like Russia. They were threatening to turn off gas, for example, in order to control certain countries,” said Forsell who spoke with GMA News Online and a few selected journalists while on a visit to Manila.

Asian nations must be prepared to defend the region from potential conflict without Washington’s aid amid uncertainties and concerns under U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves to scale back American security support to global allies, other lawmakers from the Sweden parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee said.

“Of course there is a lot of disappointment with a lot of things that have been said from the new American administration. Sometimes there's one thing said and one being another,” said Magnus Berntsson (The Christian Democrats).

Kerstin Lundgren (Centre Party) said deterrence against potential aggression is crucial.

“Signatures on paper don’t count when big interests are there. Russia didn’t care and so that is a lesson and the question we have for ourselves now is making sure that we are building up our own security, making sure that we can ensure that we are strong supporters of Ukraine,” Lundgren said.

“This is the big aggressor with friends from China, support from China, North Korea Iran.”

China, which has overlapping territorial claims with the Philippines in the resource-rich South China Sea, has long accused the U.S. and its western allies of ganging up against Beijing and disrupting the Asian region’s peace and security.

Linnea Wickman (Social Democratic Party) said building alliances is important “with everything that is happening in the world now and with a new Trump administration.”

Countries like the Philippines and Sweden and other allies, she said, must work together to defend the rule-based world order. 

“I feel like that's like the most pressing issue at the moment,” Wickman said. “With so many uncertainties at the moment I think that's what we need to do, to focus on.”

Confrontations in the waters virtually claimed by China in its entirety have spiked in recent years between Philippine and Chinese coast guards and Navies. The disputes, feared as Asia’s next potential flashpoint for a major armed conflict, also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Aron Emilson (The Sweden Democrats), head of delegation and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said like-minded states despite geographic distance should band together to defend a rules-based regime “anywhere in the world.”

“We have a lot of common interests, similarities though we are geographically situated in different continents, different parts of the world,” Emilson said, noting that Sweden and the Philippines, as coastal maritime nations, share the same values as “defenders of the rules-based order and freedom of navigation.”

Emilson said the Swedish parliamentary delegation is in the country to explore cooperation on areas, such as defense, security and trade.

They met with Filipino counterparts and officials from the National Security Agency and the Philippine Coast Guard and discussed the current security situation in the South China Sea and challenges to the rules-based order.

According to Forsell, Sweden is ready to be the Philippines’ partner in “defending the freedom of navigation, in building security and make sure that you have the right equipment to defend yourself.”

What China is doing in the region, he said, is the same as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

“In some sense it's the same conflict because China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, they're working together against the rules-based world order and it's against the Philippines, it's against Sweden. It's against Ukraine, it's against Taiwan. We have to cooperate,” he said.—LDF, GMA Integrated News