“We have agreed to deepen the bilateral defence cooperation between Sweden and Great Britain. That is an important assurance,” Andersson said after the meeting, according to a report in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. “This is something our defence and foreign ministers will now start to work on in more detail.” 

Andersson met Johnson during a gathering of leaders from the countries in the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). JEF brings together Sweden and Finland, which are both outside the Nato security alliance, with eight Nato countries in the Nordic, Baltic, and northern European regions. 

The UK’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, gave assurances at the start of this month that the UK would aid Sweden if it were attacked by Russia. But he gave few details of what form this aid would take, and, crucially, whether the UK would send troops, ships or fighter planes to help repel an attack.

After the meeting in London, there was still no clarification on what sort of military aid the UK was promising. 

“We heard the UK’s defence minister who last week was clear that the UK would show solidarity with Sweden in such a situation,” Andersson told journalists after the meeting.

The JEF meeting, in itself, sent an important signal about the high level of defence cooperation in the region, she argued. 

“This meeting is an important signal to the world around us on our cooperation and unity,” she said. “We are determined to continue with our sanctions against Russia and our support for Ukraine.” 

But in its joint statement after the meeting, the JEF countries also stopped short of guaranteeing Sweden’s security. 

“We will work in complementarity to Nato and the EU to ensure that Russia cannot continue to threaten European security,” the statement reads.

The group will do this, it adds, by: “recalibrating our approach to Russia, reducing our reliance on Russian hydrocarbons, taking part in forward defence in conjunction with our Allies, reinforcing our cooperation within and beyond the JEF, and playing an active part in restoring a safer and more peaceful world.” 

In the statement, the countries also said they now planned to launch “an enhanced programme of integrated JEF exercises and activities at sea, on land and in the air in the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea region.”

While in London, Andersson also held a bilateral meeting with Finland’s President, Sauli Niinistö, in which they discussed the changing debate over Nato membership in their respective countries. 

“We spoke about the process which is taking place in Finland, but also the process happening in Sweden, as well as how we can deepen the bilateral cooperation between Sweden and Finland,” Andersson said. 

After the meeting, Niinistö said that the Nato members among the JEF countries had assured him that Finland could join at any time. 

“In every discussion we have, we are hearing that Nato’s doors are open,” he said, according to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.