COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark will acquire long-range precision weapons, after years of cuts to its military budget, to counter the threat posed to Europe by Russia, even as there was no immediate risk of attack to the Nordic country, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
Denmark this year boosted its military budget to address acute shortcomings in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“There is no doubt that Russia will be a threat to Europe and Denmark for years to come,” Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday, adding there was no immediate risk of an attack on Denmark.
The acquisition could include missiles and drones capable of hitting targets in enemy territory, Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said. He did not say how much the government would spend on this effort or specify which weapons it would buy.
The NATO member said last week it would spend 58 billion Danish crowns ($9.20 billion) on European-made air defence systems, its largest arms purchase ever.
The war in Ukraine “shows the importance of having the ability to strike back or strike deep, as well as having an integrated layered air defence together with ground-based air defense,” Poulsen said.
($1 = 6.3034 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Essi Lehto, Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum)
