Sweden should make wise use of NATO's benevolent attitude to establish closer relations, writes Anna Wieslander.

Anna Wieslander is Deputy Director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

For the first time ever, Sweden and Finland will be meeting with NATO a few weeks from now to discuss security in the Baltic region. The discussion will be the opening shot for a new kind of strategic dialogue.

The ascendance of Jens Stoltenberg to the post of Secretary-General portends a greater focus on the region as one strategic playing field. NATOs involvement in the area has generally been limited to the crises that pop up every now and then. The new approach has the potential to greatly benefit Sweden and Finland, as well as the other Nordic and Baltic countries.

New preparedness plan is of the essence

Russias annexation of Crimea in March took NATO by surprise. All eyes are again on deterrence and military preparedness as NATO recalibrates to its primary taskcollective defence in view of more urgent security concerns on both its southern and eastern borders.

After several decades of focusing on international, out-of-area, initiatives, cobbling together the details of the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) adopted by the Cardiff Summit in September is an immediate priority ahead of the meeting of NATO defence ministers this coming February.

The summit also offered Sweden the chance to participate in an Enhanced Opportunities Program (EOP). However, the specific design of the program may be put on the back burner as NATO shifts its attention to setting up a new spearhead force, command structure and cost allocation scheme.

The organisation has a good deal of ground to make up in that respect. As a senior NATO official put it after the summit, This organization has muscle memory and we are back in the gym.

For a number of years, NATO members have been taking advantage of the opportunity to cut defence spending while it has restructured in favour of multilateral peacekeeping forces around the world.

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NATO turns its gaze to the Baltic region