COPENHAGEN,Denmark, 30 May: Denmark\u2019s centrist government said Tuesday that it wants to invest some 143 billion kroner ($20.6 billion) in the country\u2019s defense over the next decade, citing a \u201cserious threat picture.\u201d
\nThe government has an ambition to reach NATO\u2019s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on military budgets by 2030, in part as a response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\n\u201cWe are at a historic turning point in defense and security policy. There is war in Europe, and we can no longer take peace for granted,\u201d acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a press conference, calling it \u201can ambitious plan.\u201d
\n\u201cThe threat picture can change quickly. We see this not least with the war in Ukraine,\u201d Lund Poulsen said.
\nKristian S\u00f8by Kristensen with the the Center for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen, said that what the government presented was \u201can economic frame\u201d which was \u201ca starting point for talks\u201d with other political parties before a decision is made on spending the money.
\nDenmark\u2019s three-party coalition government is made up of the center-left Social Democrats, the center-right Liberal Party and the centrist Moderate party. Together they control 89 seats in the 179-seat parliament and command a majority with the support of the four lawmakers representing the semi-independent Danish territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
\nNevertheless, the government will seek broad, multi-party support as is the tradition with these issues.
\nWhile none of the money was earmarked to any specifics, Lund Poulsen said that \u201ca strengthened conscription will also be able to expand the Armed Forces\u2019 recruitment base and the reserve.\u201d He also said that he wanted \u201cmore equality between men and women.\u201d In Denmark, while four-month conscription is mandatory for men, women have a choice.
\nDenmark\u2019s Armed Forces have recently seen staff leave for several reasons. Earlier this month, the government said it wants to spend 38 billion kroner ($5.5 billion) over the next decade to modernize military facilities, renovate shabby and dilapidated buildings, increase the number of soldiers and upgrade outdated computer systems. That amount was part of the 143 billion-kroner plan presented on Tuesday. AP<\/p>\n
In recent years, Denmark\u2019s Armed Forces have focused of missions abroad rather than on territorial defense, S\u00f8by Kristensen noted, adding that on top of that came demands to save money that meant that \u201cthey deprioritized anything that was not associated\u201d with foreign assignments. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COPENHAGEN,Denmark, 30 May: Denmark\u2019s centrist government said Tuesday that it wants to invest some 143 billion kroner ($20.6 billion) in the country\u2019s defense over the next decade, citing a \u201cserious threat picture.\u201d The government has an ambition to reach NATO\u2019s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on military budgets by 2030, in part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-217320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}