The Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo on Wednesday warned of gearing tensions from Moscow following Sweden and Norway’s finalized membership with NATO .
Concerns are raised over the tension in the Nordic regions of which Finnish PM asserted that Moscow is ready for “long conflict with the West” as Denmark is also on top of their defense budget.
“Russia is evidently preparing for a long conflict with the West and represents a permanent and essential military threat to Europe,” Says Orpo. He continues, “If we, as a united Europe, fail to respond sufficiently to this challenge, the coming years will be filled with danger and the looming threat of attack,” he said, before adding: “Russia is not invincible.”
Denmark, one of NATO’s founding members, on Wednesday said it would raise its defence budget by $5.9bn over the next five years to boost its military capacity, pushing it past the spending target starting this year.
“The total defence budget, including aid to Ukraine, will amount to 2.4 percent of Danish GDP this year and in 2025,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters.
“We haven’t stopped investing in defence, but it’s still not enough,” Frederiksen said.
“If we want to reach NATO’s target of being able to deploy a brigade of 6,000 soldiers as quickly as possible and to defend Denmark against air strikes, we have to modernise even more quickly,” she stated.