STOCKHOLM (Agencies): Denmark may commit to sending 800 more troops to the Baltic States, that country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Wednesday. The Danish premier was in Estonia and appeared at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) at Tapa.
Denmark is already a regular contributor to the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battlegroup at Tapa, and around 200 of its personnel are currently based there. For an increased number of Danish troops to get the go ahead, NATO must first request them, while Denmark’s parliament, the Folketing, must also approve the move, Frederiksen said. Upon being asked at the press conference about the potential troop commitment, Prime Minister Frederiksen said it was “much more than an idea.”
The British-led eFP has been in place five years and has equivalent units in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The U.K. recently doubled the number of troops it is deploying there, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine starting February 24. Prime Minister Frederiksen’s Estonian visit on Wednesday included a visit to Tapa, accompanied by Kaja Kallas. The pair will gave a press conference with simultaneous interpretation in English which can be re-watched by clicking the YouTube video link up top or below (event starts at the 24 minutes and 30 seconds mark). The Danish prime minister was also joined on the visit by several political party leaders from Denmark, both in office and from the opposition. Denmark’s ambassador to Estonia, Mrs. Kristina Miskowiak Beckvard, said ahead of the visit that: “I look forward to seeing the Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the Danish party leaders Jakob Ellemann-Jensen (Liberal Party), Pia Olsen Dyhr (Green Left), Sofie Carsten Nielsen (Social Liberal Party) and Søren Pape Poulsen (Conservative People’s Party) – this is a sign of our unity, that they come here together.”
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