Parliament green-lights soldiers to the Baltics

200 Danish servicemen to be part of NATO battalion in Estonia

The foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, has been given approval by Parliament to deploy 200 Danish troops to Estonia as part of a NATO defence strategy in the face of the threat from Russia.

According to Parliament’s decision, which received full backing bar the left-wing party Enhedslisten, the Danish soldiers will be stationed in Estonia at the end of this year as part of a 1,000-man strong battalion under British leadership.

“We are talking about NATO’s outer borders, and it’s a clear signal to the Russian that they may hit a Dane, German or Brit if they try to shoot across there,” Samuelsen told DR Nyheder.

“And then it’ll be a whole different kind of conflict. It’s a really good way to protect us against further Russian aggression.”

READ MORE: Danish soldiers heading to Estonia in late 2017

Far outnumbered
In total, NATO wants to send 4,000 soldiers to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Poland to be deployed along the nations’ borders with Russia.

Russia has its own plans on the go, more specifically the deployment of 80,000 soldiers to the western part of the country, and Samuelsen is the first to admit that NATO is wildly outnumbered.

“But it’s an important message to send and one that will hopefully prevent us from ending up in a dire situation,” he said.

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