COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark will increase its military budget by a combined 50 billion crowns ($6.99 billion) this year and next to address acute shortcomings, most notably in surface-to-air missile defence systems, the prime minister said on Wednesday.
After decades of drastic cuts in defence spending, Denmark last year allocated and extra 190 billion crowns for its military over a 10-year span, but has now concluded that more is needed and that it must come quickly.
“Does the world look uneasy? Yes. Is there reason to believe it will be over soon? No,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference. “There is one message for the chief of defence: Buy, buy, buy.”
She said procurement would be made without going through the normal lengthy tender procedures.
“If we can’t get the best equipment, buy the next best. There’s only one thing that counts now and that is speed,” Frederiksen said.
Denmark, along with most other NATO members, has this year come under increased pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up military capabilities further.
While Denmark is among the biggest contributors of military aid and equipment to Ukraine relative to the size of its economy, the aid has depleted its own ground forces which lack hardware, ammunition and staff.
The long period of downsizing of domestic forces means Denmark has no air defences and significant shortcomings in its naval capabilities, military experts and government officials have said.
($1 = 7.1496 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
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