Denmark wants to increase the number of young people doing military service by extending conscription to women and increasing the time of service from four months to 11 months for both genders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday.
“We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it,” Frederiksen told a news conference.
She said the government wants ”full equality between the sexes.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Denmark has up to 9,000 professional troops on top of the 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, official figures showed.
The government wants to increase the number of conscripts by 300 to reach a total of 5,000.
The country is a member of the NATO alliance and a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion.
Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that “Russia does not pose a threat to Denmark.”
“But we will not bring ourselves to a place where they could come to do that,” Lokke Rasmussen said.
All physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which lasts about four months. However, because there are enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, meaning not all young men serve.
Last year, there were 4,717 conscripts in Denmark. Women who volunteered for military service accounted for 25.1 percent of the cohort, official figures showed.
Danish Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen said the new system would require a change in the law, which he said would happen next year and take effect in 2026.
The security policy situation in Europe “has become more and more serious, and we have to take that into account when we look at future defense,” Lund Poulsen said.
“A broader basis for recruiting that includes all genders is needed,” he said, adding that it would will create “a more versatile and more complete defense.”
Under the plan for which there likely is a majority in the Danish parliament, conscripts would first spend five months in basic training, followed by six months in operational service along with supplementary training.
In 2017, Sweden instituted a military draft for both men and women because the Swedish government spoke of a deteriorating security environment in Europe and around Sweden.
The Scandinavian country had previously abolished compulsory military service for men in 2010, because there were enough volunteers to meet its military needs. It never had a military draft for women before.
Norway in 2013 introduced a law applying military conscription to both sexes.
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