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NATO

Danish PM to meet US president at White House for first time

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet US President Joe Biden on June 5th in her first one-on-one meeting at the White House since taking power in 2019.

Danish PM to meet US president at White House for first time
Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen meeting US President Joe Biden at Nato's 2022 summit in Madrid. Photo: Bertrand Guay/AFP

At the meeting, which will take place on Denmark’s Constitution Day, the two will discuss Danish-American cooperation, continued support for Ukraine, expectations for the Nato summit in Vilnius in Lithuania in July, and working together on future threats, the green transition and the climate.

“It is always something special for a prime minister to represent Denmark at the White House. It is for me too, and I look forward to the visit,” Frederiksen said in a statement announcing the visit. “The United States is our most important ally. The transatlantic bond is as strong as it has ever been.”

The White House also issued a statement saying that the two leaders would “discuss our unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression” and “review our efforts as Nato allies and close partners to strengthen transatlantic security”. 

Frederiksen’s visit to the White House will take place almost a year after she first received an invitation from Biden at the Nato summit in Madrid last year. 

Most Danish prime ministers are invited to the White House at least once: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, prime minister from 2015 to 2019, met with President Donald Trump in March 2017 and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, prime minister between 2011 and 2015, visited Barack Obama in February 2012.

Jesper Steinmetz, TV2’s US correspondent, told the broadcaster that a visit scheduled last year had been cancelled because it clashed with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, while before that the visit had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“It is a visit that has been an incredibly long time in the making,” he said. “The Danish side has been working to get Mette Frederiksen to the White House for more than a year.” 

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MILITARY

US troops to mount exercise on Danish Baltic island

US troops are planning to take part in a military exercise on the island of Bornholm next month, marking the third time in three years US soldiers have trained on Danish soil.

US troops to mount exercise on Danish Baltic island

Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, revealed the planned exercise, which will take plance between May 1st and May 7th in a briefing to the Danish parliament’s defence committee.

As part of the exercise, US troops will ship an unnamed weapons system to Bornholm Airport, and then set it up in a military exercise area, but would not then fire any shots or missiles. 

“The exercise has a military training aspect, but also sends a signal about the solidarity of the alliance, about American commitment to security in Europe and in our own immediate area,” Lund Poulsen said in the briefing.

US troops took part in similar exercises in 2022 and 2023 on the strategically placed island, which lies 360km away from the Russian and controls access to the western Baltic. 

The US had requested permission to train on Bornholm, which the Danish government then accepted. There is no change in Danish armed forces’ assessment of the threat against Bornholm or Denmark, Lund Poulsen stressed. 

In December, Denmark entered into an agreement with the US, which permits US soldiers and equipment to be kept permanently on Danish soil, with hte US granted access to the Karup, Skrydstrup and Aalborg air bases.

When US troops held a similar exercise on the island in 2022, with a large missile system deployed to the island, the Russian ambassador to Denmark sent an official warning. 

“This can be seen as taking a step towards changing Bornholm from an island of peace to a potential military bridgehead,” Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, told the Danish broadcaster TV2.

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