(MENAFN) US billionaire Bill Gates has voiced his disapproval of Sweden’s decision to allocate increasing amounts of funding to its military, while simultaneously reducing its financial support for international aid initiatives.

In an interview with a newspaper on Wednesday, Gates—widely recognized for his extensive philanthropic efforts worldwide—expressed disappointment that this year’s Swedish budget does not include funding for the Global Fund, an organization dedicated to combating AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria globally.

Addressing Stockholm’s rising military expenditures, Gates remarked that the topic “should be debated more.” He questioned the necessity of such spending by asking, “Is this what people want to see, and is it really necessary?”

In response, Foreign Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa defended Sweden’s changing priorities.

Speaking to a news agency, he argued, “If we don’t want our children to speak Russian in the future, we need to have a very strong defense.”

This shift in Sweden’s stance followed the intensification of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, when the country abandoned its longstanding policy of neutrality and applied for NATO membership—a status it officially received two years later.

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