NATO critical of Danish defence spending cuts

Jun 23, 2010, 11:46 GMT

Copenhagen/Brussels - Denmark's decision to drop out of a joint NATO defence surveillance project due to defence spending cuts was criticised Wednesday by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

'I strongly regret this decision,' Rasmussen, a former Danish premier who was named NATO head a year ago, said in a statement issued in Brussels.

'Denmark's withdrawal from the programme sends the wrong signal to our forces and to other allies,' he said of the Danish decision to leave NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system aimed at providing high-altitude surveillance over wide areas.

The system consists of pilotless drone aircraft fitted out with ground-surveillance radar, to give battlefield commanders a clear view of the ground beyond their horizons.

The Danish minority government and all but one opposition party on Tuesday agreed to trim the defence budget by 1.4 billion kroner (231 million dollars) in the coming four-year period.

Denmark's portion of the AGS system was worth 540 million kroner - or 3 per cent of its total costs, Defence Minister Gitte Lillelund Bech said.

Danish firms said Wednesday they expected to lose contracts with NATO worth 371 million kroner, the Politiken daily reported.

'If you are not in the club, you can't eat there either,' an unnamed NATO official was quoted as telling the daily.