About an hour ago, a plane took off from Karup Air Station in Denmark bound for Estonia with 200 Danish soldiers on board.
The troops are heading to the Baltic states to reinforce NATO’s “forward presence” in the region, where they train with soldiers from other NATO countries for six months.
This is the fourth time Danish troops have been deployed to Estonia as part of NATO's EFP. The deployment has been planned for several years, but in recent weeks the mission has been significantly expanded following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where the number of American troops in the alliance has also increased. The Danish troops will be part of a multinational NATO force of about 4,000 troops in Poland and the Baltic states.
(Source: Ministry of Defense)
It was planned a long time ago
Although the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the situation in the region, Danish defense officials say it is largely “business as usual” for Danish soldiers.
Defense Minister Morten Bodskov arrived at Karup Airport to wish the soldiers a safe journey, and said, “The soldiers should know that they have great support from Parliament, and also from my colleagues in the Ministry of Defense of the Baltic States and the Baltic States themselves.”.
The plan is for Danish soldiers to work with their German, British and American counterparts to reinforce the idea of NATO's presence in the Baltic states.
The Danish Foreign Ministry said that the purpose of NATO's presence is to "enhance the alliance's deterrent image" and "counter the rising level of tension in the Baltic Sea region," where the decision to arm the territory was made at the NATO summit in 2016.
Pre-shipping equipment to Estonia
The journey to Estonia takes an hour and a half, and the equipment that the Danish soldiers will use was sent a week ago on a ship that sailed across the Baltic Sea from the Danish port of Køge.
