The government of Denmark plans to essentially increase the spending on the defense to resist intensified military activity of Russia in Eastern and Central Europe. Lars Rasmussen, the Prime Minister of Denmark claimed this as Reuters reported.
'Russia’s behavior has created an unpredictable and unstable security environment in the Baltic Sea region', Rasmussen said at the press conference with his Latvian colleague Maris Kucinskis on January 15 in Riga.
'When I received Putin in Copenhagen during my first term as prime minister back in 2010, everybody thought that it would be the beginning of a new and much better and much more friendly cooperation between Europe and Russia. And that we could decrease our military spending', he said.
'But given the Russian aggression and what happened in Crimea, I think we simply have to be realistic about things and invest more in our security', he is sure.
The government of Denmark should convince the parliament to support 20%increase of the military budget for five-year-term. Rasmussen noted that he expects the support of the majority.
'We want to look at ourselves as a core NATO member. And in order to behave like such a member, we need to increase our expenditures', he said. According to Rasmussen, the Danish military need the substantial increase.
'Five years ago we thought that the defense line, so to speak, would not be in Europe, but would be international operations. Now we realize that we need to have the capability to do both', he said.
Earlier Russia moved nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to its enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and deployed its S-400 air missile defense system there.
As we reported the Defense Ministers of Sweden Peter Hultqist and Denmark Claus Hjort Frederiksen stand for the strengthening of the cooperation between two countries within the fight against Russian propaganda.
