Monday marks the second day of the Folk och Försvar National Conference. It usually focuses on military defense, but with this year's overarching theme "Leadership and Governance for Resilience," it was clear that the entire total defense was at the center.
For us at the Conscription Agency, the year begins with sending out the conscription documents to 110,000 young people who turn 18 this year. Therefore, we issued a press release to inform about this, which garnered a lot of media attention. There were interviews with me and several of my colleagues broadcast on various Swedish Radio channels across Sweden. There were interviews on SVT and TV4. Now we have had conscription reactivated longer than it was dormant, and it is good that knowledge and awareness of the duty have increased over the years.
That the Folk och Försvar National Conference celebrates its 80th anniversary this year is fantastic and something we can be proud of, having such a wonderful forum where all invited from Folk och Försvar's member organizations, authorities, and politicians have discussions over several days. To rebuild Sweden's total defense, this insight is needed that we need to do this together. Not with old familiar templates, prestige, and outdated laws and regulations, but we must think anew and see what needs to change to take the next step. Therefore, the conference is a good starting point for the year to continue building the total defense together, and cooperation and collaboration become our watchwords.
Deputy Secretary General of NATO Radmila Šekerinska started Monday by talking about NATO's strategic vision with new leadership. She welcomed Sweden as an ally and also emphasized the importance of continued support to Ukraine. The next speaker was Defense Minister Pål Jonson. Regarding our issues, he spoke about the importance of defense personnel supply. He said that the military units form the core of Sweden's defense capability and are our most important contribution as a NATO ally. He argued that we must therefore do everything to produce and strengthen the units. Soldiers and sailors must be equipped, staffed, and trained together and thus fully combat-ready. I think it is very important to focus on personnel supply in these contexts because without personnel, there is no defense, as another speaker also said, whom I will soon come to.
The Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin mentioned some news affecting our agency. He stated that they are now doing roughly the same regarding electricity supply as they have done during the year by placing civil duty personnel within the rescue service area at MSB. Today he announced that the government has now started another fast track to be able to start civil duty with long basic training within the rescue service. He meant that they will use the conscription documents to select those who will do as we do today when we select who will be conscripted for military service. It was welcoming to hear, and the last time we conscripted for civil duty was in 2008, but we are prepared to also conscript for civil duty and look forward to receiving these requirement profiles so that we can adapt our conscription documents and methods for this as well.
Then it was Commander-in-Chief Michael Claesson's speech. It was a very good and clear speech about delivery. It was a speech he wanted everyone to understand and not just use military "mumbo jumbo," as we in the audience tend to do. He described what military capability is and personnel with the right competence, material with the right conditions and at the right time, infrastructure to accommodate both personnel and material, and an adequate setup of exercises for the military unit, which should be followed up. First, he will focus on strengthening the Armed Forces' wartime organization. He emphasized that personnel is his most important resource. This is what I referred to earlier and how important it is that the leaders on stage also praise and emphasize the importance of their personnel.
It says a lot about the importance of the National Conference when even SACEUR Christopher Cavoli comes to Sälen. It was also a very interesting speech and shows how welcome Sweden is in NATO. I was also pleased to hear the Chief of Defense Staff Carl-Johan Edström when he said that we have conscripts of world-class quality.
The rest of the day had very interesting speeches and discussions, but if I were to describe everything, this chronicle would become far too long. I therefore urge you to watch the entire Monday on Folk och Försvar's YouTube channel.
Christina Malm Director General Swedish Conscription and Assessment Agency