For few hours last week, it seemed as if Russia understood that there are ways to address our respective security concerns. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed a “partial” drawdown of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, in a step that looked like the de-escalation of tensions that we all hope for. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.
The US and other Western countries have called a Russian drawdown of its troops on the border as a precondition for successful negotiations on the Kremlin’s demands for “security guarantees” but Russia kept in place a force estimated to be more than 100,000 troops and expelled a U.S. diplomat from Moscow.
I believe that Russia and President Putin have opened Pandora’s Box. The longer the crisis, the stronger the West will become. It is remarkable that so many countries, from U.S. allies in the Pacific to the Nordic kingdoms and the Baltic states, as well as others in Europe, are willing to court America’s influence to avoid being coerced by rivals closer to home.
I am especially proud to see Denmark’s strong and unconditional support for peace. The government has begun negotiations with the United States on a new defense agreement cooperation, the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the Minister of Defense Morten Bodskov said, at a press conference in the Mirror Hall, in the Prime Minister’s Office, on the 10th of February.
At the press conference, the Prime Minister emphasized that the new defense agreement is not only derived from the current tensions between Russian and Ukraine. It is a more general and comprehensive agreement, which the Prime Minister is looking for, and which has been negotiated for a long time. I strongly believe the new agreement is similar to the one Norway entered with the US in 2021. If I am right, a new agreement could break with the current policy where foreign troops are not allowed to be stationed on Danish soil.
”Denmark and the United States have a special bond. And since the end of World War II, they have been our closest ally. But now is the time to throw more into the alliance,” she said. I think more countries will follow Norway and Denmark and ask the US for similar arrangements in the weeks to come.
