South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
Nato
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
(From left) Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen give a press conference on strengthening the army. Photo: AFP
WorldEurope

Denmark to boost defence budget, with spending to surpass Nato’s 2 per cent target

  • Its total defence budget, including aid to Ukraine, will amount to 2.4 per cent of Danish GDP this year and in 2025
  • The increased funding, which will run from 2024 to 2028, will be used to boost Denmark’s military capacity and provide aid to Ukraine
Nato
Agence France-Presse
Associated Press
Agence France-PresseandAssociated Press
Why you can trust SCMP

Denmark on Wednesday said it would raise its defence spending by US$5.9 billion over five years to boost its military capacity, pushing it past Nato’s spending target from this year.

Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014 served as a wake-up call for European countries and saw Nato increase its minimum defence spending requirements from less than 1.5 per cent to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the country’s defence spending would amount to 2.4 per cent of GDP this year and next year, above Nato’s target for member states.

Denmark is one of Nato’s founding members.

Sweden’s flag is raised at Nato headquarters in Brussels, at a ceremony for its accession to the bloc. Photo: Xinhua

“The total defence budget, including aid to Ukraine, will amount to 2.4 per cent of Danish GDP this year and in 2025,” Frederiksen told reporters.

The increased funding, which will run from 2024 to 2028, will be used to boost Denmark’s military capacity and provide aid to Ukraine.

It will also go towards an expansion of conscription from four to 11 months and will include women for the first time.

“We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it,” Frederiksen said, and added that the government wants “full equality between the sexes”.

Denmark currently has up to 9,000 professional troops on top of the 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, according to official figures. The government wants 5,000 extra conscripts.

Denmark to send its ‘entire artillery’ to Ukraine, PM says

All physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which lasts roughly four months. However, because there are enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, meaning not all young men serve.

In 2023, there were 4,717 conscripts in Denmark. Women who volunteered for military service accounted for 25.1 per cent of the cohort, according to official figures.

Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the new system would require a change in the law, which he said will happen in 2025 and take effect in 2026.

Denmark already announced last year that it was tripling its military spending over the next 10 years.

“We haven’t stopped investing in defence, but it’s still not enough,” Frederiksen said.

“If we want to reach Nato’s target of being able to deploy a brigade of 6,000 soldiers as quickly as possible and to defend Denmark against air strikes, we have to modernise even more quickly,” she added.

Post