Yahoo – AFP.
10 March 2015
Swedish
Prime Minister Stefan Loefven gives a press conference at the
Rosenbad
government office in Stockholm, October 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Jonathan
Nackstrand)
|
Stockholm
(AFP) - Sweden announced Tuesday it will not renew a military cooperation
agreement with Saudi Arabia, effectively ending defence ties due to mounting
concerns over rights issues.
"It
will be broken off," Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said on public radio of
a 2005 Saudi-Swedish agreement.
The
Social-Democrat premier spoke a day after Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot
Wallstroem accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League
meeting.
Saudi
Arabia is the third largest non-Western buyer of Swedish arms. In 2014, Riyadh
bought equipment worth 338 million kroner (37 million euros, $39 million).
The deal,
which was due for renewal for another five years in May, has come under fire
within Loefven's Social Democrats, while their Green Party coalition partners
oppose it categorically.
Wallstroem
has rarely commented on Saudi Arabia but in January she slammed the kingdom's
treatment of blogger Raef Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10
years in prison for insulting Islam.
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