COPENHAGEN, March 13, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Denmark on Wednesday said that it would raise its defence spending by $5.9 billion over five years to boost its military capacity, pushing it past NATO's spending target from this year.

Russia's invasion of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014 served as a wake-up call for European countries and saw NATO increase its minimum defence spending requirements from less than 1.5 percent to two percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the country's defence spending would amount to 2.4 percent of GDP this year and next year, above NATO's target for member states.

Denmark is one of NATO's founding members.

"The total defence budget, including aid to Ukraine, will amount to 2.4 percent of Danish GDP this year and in 2025," Frederiksen told reporters.

The increased funding, which will run from 2024 to 2028, will be used to 
boost Denmark's military capacity and provide aid to Ukraine.

It will also go towards an expansion of conscription from four to 11 months and will include women for the first time. 

Denmark already announced last year that it was tripling its military spending over the next 10 years.

"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 added.