Sweden, Poland Agree on Military Exercise on Baltic Island

Sweden and Poland launched a military exercise named Gotland Sentry to boost defenses of the strategic island in the Baltic Sea as concerns over an increasingly assertive Russia are rising in the region.

The two countries began the exercise “to increase deterrence, strengthen peace, and defend the Baltic Sea region,” Sweden’s Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in a social media post on X. His Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a separate post that the operation was agreed in a deal signed Sept. 2.