The island of Gotland, located in the Baltic Sea, is a favorite vacation destination for many Swedes. However, in recent years, this island has become one of NATO's important strategic objects and an “outpost against Russia”. write Bloomberg.
There are currently about 300 conscripts at the local Tofta military base. That's 40 more than in 2022. Soon, the number of military personnel at the base will “at least double.” Recently, a villa next to a nearby farm was rented to house surplus military personnel.
Farmer Aibhlin McMenamin, 30, said: “They (the army – editor's note) are constantly expanding. We are starting to feel like we are surrounded.”
Gotland's landscape – a mix of farmland and cool beaches – is known as an inspiration for Oscar-winning director Ingmar Bergman. Normally, October is the month when many local tourism businesses close for the winter, but this year builders, restaurants, cafe owners and public transport operators remained open because of hundreds of new military customers.
Ten years ago, the Tofta base was a training ground for part-time Swedish soldiers. Today, conscripts practice their skills in operating artillery, trucks and tanks at the base. Bloomberg emphasized that the growing military presence clearly demonstrates how billions of euros of new defense spending are changing the face of communities along NATO's eastern border.
The agency noted that Gotland is a strategically important region in the heart of the Baltic Sea, providing control of air and sea routes from east to west to Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. Petersburg. Over the centuries, the Swedes, Danes and Germans have fought for it.
During the Cold War, Gotland hosted thousands of Swedish soldiers, top-secret listening posts and submarine ports, but was demilitarized after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
