Swedish arms exports to Turkey more than doubled in 2025 from a year earlier, Swedish media reported on Thursday, indicating a shift in bilateral ties since Stockholm joined NATO in March 2024 after Turkey dropped its objections to Swedish membership.
Public broadcaster Sveriges Radio Ekot said military equipment exports to Turkey rose 109 percent in 2025 compared to 2024. The report said Sweden had not sold military equipment to Turkey before joining the alliance and linked the increase to concessions made during the NATO accession process.
Turkey had pressed Sweden to remove barriers to arms sales during the talks over its NATO bid. Sweden’s Inspectorate of Strategic Products said in 2022 that it had changed its assessment and approved export licenses for follow-on deliveries to Turkey, while the Swedish government said NATO membership would change the conditions for arms exports to alliance members.
Sweden became NATO’s 32nd member on March 7, 2024, ending a process delayed in part by Ankara, which had accused Stockholm of being too soft on groups Turkey designates as terrorist organizations.
The increase in arms exports came as a new democracy report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg said Turkey’s democratic decline had continued, listing the country among states contributing to deterioration in the region and describing it as one of the prominent “autocratizers” of the past 25 years.
Paul Levin, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University, told Sveriges Radio Ekot that Sweden had also become more cautious in criticizing Turkey after the two countries entered into a security arrangement during the NATO negotiations.