Denmark will deploy 800 soldiers in May in Latvia on behalf of NATO, after having received a formal request from the Atlantic alliance, the Danish Prime Minister announced on Thursday March 31.
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After the invasion of Ukraine and faced with high tensions with Russia, Copenhagen had placed this battalion on alert, in addition to ground and air reinforcements already sent to the Baltic countries and Poland.
On Tuesday, the Danish government announced that it was ready to dispatch 800 soldiers to the Baltic countries, if NATO requested it.
"
We have received NATO's formal request to place a battalion in Latvia
," Danish leader Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday during a trip to the country.
The troops are expected to arrive in May, according to the Danish army.
200 men in Estonia
NATO has sent significant reinforcements in recent weeks to the eastern flank of the alliance, in a logic of deterrence vis-à-vis Moscow.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia are among the countries reinforced or in the process of being reinforced.
More than 100,000 American soldiers are currently present in Europe and more than 40,000 soldiers are under direct command of NATO in the eastern part, unheard of according to the alliance.
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After an initial dispatch of fighter planes to Lithuania before the invasion of Ukraine, Denmark had sent around 200 men to Estonia in early March, as well as two fighter planes to Poland and a frigate to the eastern Baltic Sea. .