COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark’s government proposed on Tuesday to invest 143 billion Danish crowns ($21.14 billion) in defence over the next 10 years, in line with a pledge to meet NATO’s spending target.
A founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Denmark scaled down its military capabilities to wage a land war in Europe after the end of the Cold War.
But in response to the Ukraine crisis, it pledged last year to permanently increase spending on defence and security to 2% of gross domestic product by the end of 2030, a key goal for NATO member states.
“We must, to a greater extent, be able to live up to the demands and expectations that NATO and its allies have for Denmark,” Troels Lund Poulsen, the acting defence minister, told a press conference.
“This requires large investments in our armed forces to lift our share of the responsibility.”
Spending will be scaled up to 19.2 billion crowns ($2.84 billion) in 2033, from 6.9 billion ($1 billion) next year.
The majority government said its proposal would set the overall frame for defence spending, during which decisions on actual military procurements would be agreed upon continuously.
($1=6.7638 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Johannes Birkebaek and Louise Breusch Rasmussen; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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