Denmark, US Reach Defence Agreement

Denmark has reached a defence agreement with the United States that will allow US soldiers and military equipment to be based on Danish soil, the country’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.

The 10-year agreement was announced after the United States signed similar agreements with Finland and Sweden this month.

“This means that American soldiers and equipment can be permanently stationed on Danish soil,” Frederiksen told reporters at a press conference.

The agreement, which Denmark and the United States began negotiating in February last year, will be signed later this week and will enter into force when necessary legislation has been adopted about a year from now, Frederiksen said.

Finland on Monday signed a defence cooperation agreement with the United States to grant the US military broad access across the Nordic country to the vicinity of its long border with Russia.

Sweden signed a similar agreement earlier in December, and Norway, which also shares a short border with Russia, in 2021 signed an agreement with the United States on how to regulate US military activity on its soil.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere