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Coverage · NATO Eastern Flank

Relationship record

Sweden and the eastern flank — The United States and the eastern flank

The bilateral framework for US forces' access to agreed Swedish facilities, signed in December 2023 while Sweden's accession was still pending.

Defence agreement Since 2023-12-05

Active
Assessed as of
2023-12-05
Last reviewed
2026-10-29

AssessmentHigh confidence

A described arrangement, not a rating. Vigil publishes no measure of how strong, warm or hostile a relationship is, and no relationship on this site carries a score, a trend or a direction of travel. What is recorded is what the arrangement covers, when it began, what has changed it, and how firmly each of those is established.

Sweden and the eastern flankDefence agreement withThe United States and the eastern flankDefence agreement with
In short

A Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Sweden, signed on 5 December 2023, setting the legal framework for US forces' presence and activities at agreed facilities and areas in Sweden.

A symmetric arrangement: it reads the same from either side. Authored once, on one record.

The arrangement

Status
ActiveIn force and operating. Says nothing about how well it is working, or about which way it is heading.
What it covers
DefenceBasingLegal and treatyCategories the arrangement is documented to include. Not a measure: a relationship covering more of them is described in more detail, not held more firmly.

Summary

The United States and Sweden signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement on 5 December 2023, three months before Sweden became NATO's thirty-second member. Like the agreements the United States signed with Finland and Denmark the same month, it sets the legal terms under which US forces may be present at and use agreed facilities and areas, supplementing the NATO status-of-forces arrangements. It is an access framework, not a stationing decision: the agreement says where US forces may operate, not that any are there.

Why it matters

The three Nordic agreements of December 2023 put the northern approaches on the same legal footing the United States has with Poland and Romania. For a reinforcement system, whether forces can legally operate from a place is settled before any crisis, and these instruments are where it was settled for Sweden.

Agreements

  • US-Sweden Defense Cooperation Agreement · signed 2023-12-05

    Signed in Washington. Its entry into force and the list of agreed facilities are not carried here.

Related events

What remains unknown

  • The agreed facilities and areas are not enumerated. Base locations are governed by this module's sensitivity rules and are not authored from this agreement.
  • The date of entry into force was not read for this pass.
  • No US presence in Sweden is recorded on the strength of the agreement; access is not stationing.

All NATO Eastern Flank relationships Open in Explore

Sensitivity: public-contextual Confidence: High Sources: US Department of State bureau fact sheets↗ · Official government statements Methodology Corrections

Assessed as of — 2023-12-05 Last reviewed — 2026-10-29