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IN PICS: The assault ship USS Kearsarge arrives in Stockholm

The USS Kearsarge, a 257-metre amphibious assault ship, arrived in Stockholm on June 2nd. It is in the region to take part in the Baltic Operations (Baltops) military exercise.

Published: 3 June 2022 14:05 CEST

IN PICS: The assault ship USS Kearsarge arrives in Stockholm

The USS Kearsarge arrives in Stockholm. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

The USS Kearsarge isn’t the only military vessel expected to arrive in Stockholm for this exercise – around 40 vessels from 13 nations will be arriving and mooring in the capital in the coming days.

Here’s a video showing the ship working its way through Oxdjupet, a strait between two islands in the Stockholm archipelago.

257m USS Kearsarge glider in i oxdjupet.
Varmt välkommen! pic.twitter.com/2eMhXoLxui

— Niklas Hjelmar (@NiklasHjelmar) June 2, 2022

The Kearsarge will be in Stockholm until June 5th.

USS Kearsarge pic.twitter.com/63SVCXeVln

— Roger Gustafsson (@rgustafssonX) June 2, 2022

This is the 51st time the Baltops exercise has been held, with this year’s exercise including air defence, submarine detection, mine disposal, amphibious operations and medical exercises.

As well as Sweden, 16 other nations are taking part, with Sweden and Finland coordinating with members of the Nato alliance.

The military exercise is being held in parallel with celebration of the Swedish Navy’s 500th anniversary, and will end on June 17th.

The USS Kearsarge and a Djurgården ferry in Stockholm harbour. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Member comments

rpavellas_60a8c52a77740 - 3 June 2022 at 19:20 CEST

I was aboard a sister ship, USS Bon Homme Richard, CVA-31 in 1956-1957. It’s flight deck was 271 meters. We steamed with the Kearsarge in WESTPAC (Western Pacific). I have lived in Stockholm for 20 years. I would love to visit the Kearsarge, if it were possible. I was ET#, electronics technician.

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Turkey: Sweden's planned extradition not enough to meet Nato pledge

Nato member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden’s attempts to join the Western defence alliance unless it extradites dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism”.

A non-binding deal Sweden and fellow Nato aspirant Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to “expeditiously and thoroughly” examine Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.

The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale — a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the conservative Milliyet news site that Sweden needed to do far more to win Turkey’s trust.

“If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,”

Bozdag said in the first government response to the extradition decision. “Nobody should test Turkey.”

Bozdag is seen as one of the more hawkish members of Erdogan’s government. The powerful Turkish leader himself has warned that he will not submit the two countries’ applications for ratification in parliament unless they comply with his extradition demands in full.

Erdogan said in July that Sweden had made a “promise” to extradite “73 terrorists”.

The Turkish justice ministry in June formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.

Sweden and Finland ended decades of military non-alignment and decided to try and join NATO in response to Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

Their bids have already been ratified by the United States and more than half of the 30 members of NATO. Each application must win unanimous consent from member states.

Sweden and Finland are due to hold their first formal consultations with Turkey about the dispute on August 26.

The Swedish foreign ministry on Thursday denied a report in the Aftonbladet newspaper, saying that the meeting will be held in Stockholm.

According to the Aftonbladet report, Turkish Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin has been invited to the meeting.

No official venue for the talks has been set.

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