The defence minister, Nicolai Wammen, announced at a NATO meeting in Brussels yesterday that Denmark is ready to provide more support to its NATO allies in eastern Europe.
Wammen revealed that the Danes have offered NATO another ship to support NATO’s mine-clearing groups, as well as a maritime observational aircraft in the Baltic Sea area.
“Denmark wants to underline its status as a loyal and active ally and will also in future contribute with needed support to NATO’s activities, including supporting the flexible utilisation of the military capacities we’ve already dedicated to NATO,” Wammen said in a press release.
READ MORE: Denmark sending fighters to the Baltic region
Political solution preferred
Denmark has already contributed four F-16 fighter jets to the Baltic Air Policing group, as well as the Esbern Snare support ship to NATO’s standing navy forces. The unstable situation in Ukraine was a significant reason for the added support in the eastern parts of Europe.
“The crisis in Ukraine is very dynamic,” Wammen said. “The government is following the developments closely. We will co-operate with our allies in NATO and evaluate how we can contribute to a political solution via our negotiations in the EU.”
Wammen stated that the government still believes that a military solution is not the way forward in Ukraine and that the NATO initiatives in the region are solely designed to demonstrate a strong alliance, rather than escalate the situation.
