COPENHAGEN: Nato member Denmark said on Thursday it was ready to allow US military troops on its soil as part of a new bilateral defence agreement with the US, amid rising tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

The Scandinavian country has become one of Washington’s closest European allies in the past two decades, having fought alongside the US in Iraq.

“The United States has reached out to Denmark, proposing a bilateral defence cooperation,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters.

“The exact nature of this collaboration has not yet been defined but it could include the presence of US troops, material and military equipment on Danish soil,” she added.

The negotiations have been in the works for “a long time” and are not a direct result of the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine, Frederiksen said. But that crisis demonstrates the need for more cooperation, she added.

“It is clear that the situation in Ukraine illustrates very, very clearly that we cannot take our freedom, our peace and our security for granted”, the prime minister said. Norway and the Baltic states already have similar agreements with Washington, Copenhagen said.

“Nato and the United States are guarantors of our security. That is why we join forces with the United States when Western values such as democracy and freedom are under threat,” said Danish Defence Minister Morten Bodskov, who was also present at Thursday’s press conference.

Researcher Peter Viggo Jakobsen of the Royal Danish Defence College said Copenhagen’s move was intended to send a signal to Russia.

“The aim of this exercise is to show the Russians that we can quickly reinforce the troops already present in the Baltic states and Poland”, he told news agency Ritzau.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2022