Denmark will send an additional 800 soldiers to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to reinforce the NATO contingent, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2022) Denmark will send an additional 800 soldiers to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to reinforce the NATO contingent, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday.
"Yesterday, we (the Danish government) decided to make sure that we can send 800 soldiers next to what we are already doing in this (Baltic) region, and we are expecting that NATO wants us to be present here," Frederiksen said at a press conference after meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in the Estonian military town of Tapa.
For her part, Kallas thanked Denmark for its commitment to Baltic countries' defense.
"Denmark has had a long-term commitment to Estonian and Baltic defense, and we are very grateful for that. Danish forces are here in Tapa today, as part of NATO's enhance Forward Presence. Your (Danish) planes help to protect our skies in the Baltic Air Policing mission, and your ships secure our seas," Kallas noted.
In 2016, NATO decided to deploy multinational battalions on a rotational basis to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland at their request. A NATO combat battalion group of about 1,200 troops has been deployed in Tapa since April 2017. The NATO International Battalion is led by the United Kingdom, with the participation of military units from France and Denmark on a rotational basis.
On March 18, Estonian Finance Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus said that the country would boost defense spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP.
