The Swedish Police are well prepared for the meeting of NATO Ministers
On 21 and 22 May, Helsingborg is hosting the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The task of the Police is to ensure that the meeting can be conducted in a safe and secure manner and with as little impact as possible on the community.
This is the first time that a NATO meeting at the minister level is held in Sweden. The participants are the 32 Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member states, their delegations and the NATO leadership. The thorough planning process of the Police ensures that the meeting can be conducted in a safe and secure manner, and one of the objectives is to minimise the impact from the Police’s work on the local community during the meeting.
“We want Helsingborg to keep functioning as usual during these days, and we do not want people to feel that they need to stay at home. We have placed great emphasis on balancing the interruptions of daily life with the security aspects to minimise the impacts”, says Mattias Sigfridsson, the Police Operation Commander.
However, it is not possible to conduct a meeting with this level of protection without any impact at all. Some areas will be closed around Hamntorget and the Sofiero Castle grounds where various events will be held, but in the main, there will be impacts on traffic as certain road junctions will be closed for shorter periods of time when motorcades pass through them.
“The meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs is important to Sweden, and the large number of ministers present means that the need for protection is high. The Swedish Police are well-trained, well-equipped, competent and experienced in handling large events of this kind, and thanks to thorough planning, we are well prepared”, says Mattias Sigfridsson.