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FILE PHOTO-Denmark’s acting Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media after the launch of the Ukraine Fund at Marienborg in Lyngby, Denmark March 15, 2023. Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
COPENHAGEN, May 2 (Reuters) – Denmark will donate military equipment and financial support to Ukraine worth 1.7 billion Danish crowns ($250 million), the Nordic country’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Tuesday.
The minister also said Denmark will reduce its military presence in Iraq starting in early-2024 and instead focus on the Baltic countries, offering NATO a battalion to defend the region.
The battalion is expected to consist of between 700 and 1,200 soldiers, and is expected to be deployed in Latvia between four and six months every year.
The rest of the year, the troops will remain in Denmark, ready to be deployed to the Baltic states in case of a crisis, the ministry of defence said.
“We must be prepared for the Danish presence in the Baltics to be long-term, and there is a need for balancing between having soldiers on the ground and being ready to deploy them from Denmark,” Poulsen said.
Denmark will withdraw one of its security and escort units of about 105 soldiers in Iraq as of February next year, but will continue to provide staff and advice to NATO’s mission in Iraq, the defence ministry said.
($1 = 6.8051 Danish crowns)
Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik
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