Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said his country's turnabout on pursuing membership in NATO does not mean it is abandoning its status as a neutral peacemaker, but Russia's war in Ukraine has "fundamentally" changed the situation in Europe.

"Our values are the same values as other countries in Europe … that we try to create peace and we try to create peaceful solutions," Hultqvist said in an interview with DW anchor Gerhard Elfers.

"But we are not naive, we see the development around us and we must make conclusions from that situation," he added.

Hultqvist added that the possibility of Sweden storing nuclear weapons is not on the agenda. Should Sweden be allowed into the transatlantic military alliance, the biggest change would be to take part in NATO exercises and serve as a deterrent to Russia.

"The whole idea to be a member of NATO is also that we will have NATO representations in different sort of exercises and activities on Swedish soil," the defense minister said. "I think we can build a higher level and higher threshold towards Russia with NATO membership."

With regards to Turkey blocking Sweden and Finland's NATO bids, Hultqvist said that his country and NATO members are trying to resolve the issue diplomatically.

"Our ambition is to solve this problem," he said.

Interview conducted by: Gerhard Elfers
Edited by: Sean Sinico