Pevkur: Rising Danish defense spending creates opportunity for Estonian defense industry

TALLINN – Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said after meeting with Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and the Danish parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee on Wednesday that the increase in Danish defense investments also offers new opportunities for Estonian defense industry companies.

The Danish government has agreed to accelerate the build-up of Denmark's defense over the next two years. To this end, the Danish government will allocate an additional 50 billion Danish kroner, or 6.7 billion euros, to defense and accelerate investments.

"With the increased funding, Denmark will allocate more than 3 percent of GDP to defense in 2025 and 2026. The increase in Danish defense investments also offers new opportunities for Estonian defense industry companies," Pevkur said.

"The roots of close cooperation between Estonia and Denmark are both historically deep and in line with today's needs. Denmark has made a commendable and long-term contribution to the defense of Estonia and the wider Baltic Sea region, and shares our views on both increasing defense spending and supporting Ukraine," the minister added.

"We also commend Denmark for its significant additional effort in supporting Ukraine. Denmark has contributed more than 16 million euros to the IT Coalition led by Estonia and Luxembourg over the past two years, and we hope that this strong support will continue. In total, the value of Danish aid packages has been approximately 9.5 billion euros since the start of the war, which is more than 2 percent of Denmark's GDP," Pevkur said.

In Estonia, Denmark has contributed nine times to airspace protection within the framework of the Baltic air policing mission and previously with a rotating battalion in the NATO battlegroup, which is now part of the NATO battlegroup in Latvia.