COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark has no plans to invoke NATO’s Article 4 after drone incursions near civilian and military sites that shut air traffic in the Nordic country earlier this week, Denmark’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Article 4 of the NATO treaty states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.
“Article 4 has been activated nine times in NATO’s entire history, and twice recently in relation to Poland and Estonia, so we have no reason to do so,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has linked the drone incident that shut Copenhagen airport late on Monday to suspected Russian drone activities across Europe, but without providing evidence, a claim strongly rejected by Moscow.
Denmark’s foreign minister also announced on Thursday that the Nordic country will donate 2.7 billion Danish crowns ($422.43 million) to Ukraine, of which a large part would be invested in Ukraine’s defence industry.
($1 = 6.3916 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Soren Jeppesen and Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
