Mette Frederiksen admitted that Denmark and other countries made a mistake by cutting their defence spending as she announced a 50bn Danish kroner (£5.5bn) package, saying: “It must never happen again.”
The Danish prime minister increased defence spending to 3% of GDP in the next two years – up from 2.4% in 2024 – as she said Denmark needed a “massive rearmament” to avoid war.
Speaking at a press conference in Christiansborg Palace on Wednesday, she said the increase in defence spending would bring it to “the highest level in over half a century”.
Denmark has come under huge pressure in recent weeks – first over Donald Trump’s plan to take control of Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, and then over US warnings about cutting support to Europe.
“We have had to pay attention to a lot, both here in Denmark and in Greenland, and in general as Europeans,” Frederiksen said. “We are in the most dangerous situation in many, many years.”
Frederiksen said her message to the Danish chief of defence was: “Buy, buy, buy.”
She added: “If we can’t get the best equipment, buy the next best. There’s only one thing that counts now, and that is speed.”
She said Russian president Vladimir Putin was in the process of rearmament. “We don’t know what he is planning, but we know that he and Russia are in the process of rearming.”
Responding to the US president’s false claim on Tuesday that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “started” the war with Russia, Frederiksen said: “Ukraine has not started any war. Ukraine has not wanted any war.”
She added: “There is only one aggressive party.”
The 50bn Danish kroner “acceleration fund” will be used to make rapid investments in fighting capability aimed at strengthening short-term defence capabilities and meeting Nato requirements.
The Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said: “Within two years, Russia could pose a credible threat to one or several Nato countries if Nato does not build up its own military power in the same rate as Russia. This calls for swift political action.”
The announcement came amid a mood of panic across Europe after a dramatic foreign policy shift in Washington.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday held a meeting on Ukraine to coordinate Europe’s response to what he described as the “existential threat” posed by Russia.
Also on Wednesday, Sweden and Poland agreed to “strengthen and deepen cooperation” politically and in civil protection and civil defence, citing the worsened security situation across Europe.
In a statement of intent, the Polish interior minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, and Swedish civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said they would work together to improve national resilience and preparedness strategies, provide Ukraine support on strengthening national resilience, improve security in the Baltic region and cooperate on “identifying and analysing hybrid threats and countering its consequences”.
