Denmark to join Nato's missile defense system

Denmark has decided to join NATO's missile defence system, local media reported Friday.

 

Denmark will contribute at least one frigate to NATO's missile defense shield, the country's Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday afternoon.

"We will offer that one and more of our frigates can be outfitted with a radar that can be part of the missile defence. There was wide support for that (in the Foreign Affairs Committee)," Lidegaard was cited as saying by Denmark's newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Denmark's Defense Minister Nikolai Wammen emphasized that the decision to join the missile defence system is not an action aimed at Russia.

"It is to protect the Danes against rogues states, terrorist organisations and others that have the capacity to fire missiles at Europe and the US," he said.

According to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, it will cost some 400-500 million Danish kroner (71-89 million U.S. dollars) to equip Danish frigates with advanced radar equipment.

At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Committee also decided that Denmark will send weapons and a contingent of troops to Iraq to fight the extremist Islamic State.