SWEDEN’S prime minister said on Wednesday that his government aims to ramp up defence spending to a target of 3.5 per cent of the Nordic country’s gross domestic product, marking its largest military build up since the cold war.

Ulf Kristersson said that the figure was based on an assessment of a new political and security backdrop in Europe in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago and the prevailing “uncertainty” about the transatlantic relationship.

The more robust military ambitions come just over a year after Sweden formally joined the Nato bloc, ending decades of neutrality, largely out of concerns about an increasingly assertive Russia.