Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00Yes, it's the same thing, that one follows very closely, presumably has
00:00:04contacts with other countries to
00:00:07inform about what has happened, uh, and see and
00:00:11hear how they view the situation, and then the
00:00:15Russian ambassador will, as said, go to
00:00:18a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this typically takes place with
00:00:21the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where it is made
00:00:24clear that this is completely
00:00:27unacceptable, uh. And then
00:00:30one probably also considers if there are other things one
00:00:33should do, anything else one can do.
00:00:37And Christine, what kind of signal is it to ask the Russian
00:00:41ambassador to come for a
00:00:44the Russians are provocative, they are meeting?
00:00:46Well, it's a diplomatic
00:00:49step, uh, that one can use. There is such a
00:00:52diplomatic ladder, you can also start
00:00:55expelling diplomats, you can, if it's the really big
00:00:59scale, break off diplomatic relations with
00:01:02a country, and this, this is still quite low
00:01:06on the scale,
00:01:09but it's a diplomatic way to make it clear that
00:01:12this is unacceptable, that
00:01:15uh, that one is dissatisfied with what is happening, uh, so it's, it's
00:01:19such - one of the lower steps in the
00:01:22diplomatic handbook, and it's not something you can send an
00:01:25answer key for this, but still, some people probably
00:01:29think:... Hmm, where, where on the scale are we with
00:01:33such a conversation? Who, uh, who decides
00:01:39what the government is doing right here is that? So, it's usually always
00:01:43the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who
00:01:46handles these types of conversations, it's
00:01:49not, it's not Lykke herself, it's not the Foreign Minister, it's at
00:01:52an official level, but of course the
00:01:55highest official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who
00:01:59normally conducts these types of
00:02:02conversations, uh, and it, it is, yes, it is such
00:02:06a diplomatic step, which is a
00:02:09marking that Denmark will not tolerate
00:02:13this, and the situation as the government sees it
00:02:17with Russia is that they are constantly
00:02:20trying to provoke NATO
00:02:23countries, that there are many
00:02:26hybrid attacks, not all of them we hear
00:02:30about, not all of them succeed, but that there
00:02:33is a constant
00:02:36provocation from
00:02:39say, their finger on the trigger, I mean, they are Russia, which they are now trying to respond to in this
00:02:41way, and how serious a political situation is
00:02:44that?
00:02:48Well, I think at least the government and many of
00:02:52the parties in parliament see the whole situation with the
00:02:55way Russia is acting now as very serious
00:02:59and... potentially even more dangerous than what we are experiencing
00:03:03now. You can also hear from the parties that there is
00:03:07very, very strong support for the government and for the way
00:03:10the government is acting, and in such foreign policy
00:03:14situations, security policy situations, it is usually
00:03:18a sign that people take it very seriously, so
00:03:21seriously that the parties do not feel the urge to make
00:03:25politics out of this. Yes, we have also heard from the various
00:03:29politicians - all morning, all
00:03:32forenoon, that they support the government's line.
00:03:35Christine, this is also a balancing act for
00:03:38politicians, because they have to deal with the seriousness, which we also hear from
00:03:42experts, as it is, but still,
00:03:46one should not talk the population into
00:03:49worry, what kind
00:03:50of balancing act is that?
00:03:54Well, it's difficult with everything that's happening right
00:03:57now, that you, you want
00:04:01Danes to be aware of how serious the situation
00:04:04is, also to ensure continued
00:04:07support for the very massive aid to
00:04:10Ukraine, which the government and many parties
00:04:14see as a shield against
00:04:17Russia, that one starts, uh, meaning if
00:04:21Russia wins, it goes on, and now the politicians are coming
00:04:25out, we'll hurry over to them, won't we, Christine, let's see if we
00:04:28can get one of them to talk. Were you less worried than when you went in? No,
00:04:32the situation is, uh, just as serious as it has been all
00:04:36along, uh, it's clearly an
00:04:39escalation from the Russian side, but it doesn't end there,
00:04:43that the way we have handled it from a military
00:04:46professional point of view, we are very confident, and you are also confident in the way the Danish helicopter acted, yes, so it is
00:04:50purely a Russian provocation, this
00:04:53is, so my own analysis is that Russia is currently in the process
00:04:57of moving on what is called normally. And that
00:05:00means that they strive for
00:05:04NATO countries to start lowering
00:05:06their guard when aggression occurs, it is then
00:05:10simply important that we are ready. And we have close cooperation
00:05:13continuously both in the Nordic countries, in Europe and of course also in NATO, but you are
00:05:17not more confident after you came out of this, so the seriousness is the
00:05:21same, and what this briefing was about was solely a
00:05:24military professional briefing, and where did it take place, the
00:05:28incident itself? Well, I have nothing substantive to
00:05:31add.
00:05:33How, in relation to whether it was a
00:05:37poorly manned crew, or whether it was a deliberate action from Russia's side, that is,
00:05:41Putin's side? Yes, so purely military professional
00:05:44assessments, I have nothing to contribute
00:05:48with. We have spoken with an expert who says that it is clear that
00:05:51the Russians react when the Danes provoke by
00:05:55sending a helicopter to take pictures. What do you think about that?
00:05:58Well, it's completely normal that we, uh, have
00:06:02helicopters out and photograph military
00:06:05vessels, and the helicopter is allowed to be there, the Russian vessel is allowed to be
00:06:09there, but it cannot be perceived as a provocation to fly over and
00:06:13take pictures of a frigate, no, what happened here is an aggression, it's completely
00:06:17normal, also for that particular vessel, that
00:06:19we, uh, encounter it and photograph it, so
00:06:23it is a, uh, a Russian escalation that one
00:06:27actually shoots at a military helicopter, but they
00:06:31don't shoot, they just react, meaning they send up some
00:06:33warning flares, couldn't it be
00:06:36like that?
00:06:39Inger Støjberg, Inger Støjberg, you have just been to a
00:06:42military professional assessment or briefing here in the Ministry of Defense, are you
00:06:46less confident than when you, or more confident than when you went in? I feel exactly
00:06:50the same as when I went in, that I think the government is acting completely correctly in this
00:06:54matter, uh, and that it simply proves
00:06:57that we must continue to arm, it proves
00:07:01that we must stand together in Parliament, and there must not be a
00:07:05piece of paper to put between
00:07:07the parties in Parliament when it comes to our
00:07:11rejection of Russia, uh, and that it also
00:07:15means that we must continue to support Ukraine, because
00:07:19Ukraine's fight for freedom is also our fight for freedom, but is it a viable
00:07:23path we are on right now, when we see these Russian provocations or attacks again and
00:07:26again? Excuse me, is it a viable path we are
00:07:29on, I mean, now we see a Russian provocation again, and it
00:07:33is becoming, there are more and more of them, we see them all over Europe, how can it be the
00:07:37right way to go, that we should just summon an ambassador in Ny? Yes, but it
00:07:41is not just summoning an ambassador, it is
00:07:45one of the tools in the toolbox,
00:07:49and it gives the opportunity that if the situation becomes
00:07:52more serious, then there are also more
00:07:56tools in the toolbox, so I believe that it is completely proportionate and completely
00:08:00correct what the government is doing, yes, other sanctions could, or other things in reverse,
00:08:04could be sanctions, is that what you see being used next? Well,
00:08:07that's not where we are with this incident,
00:08:11but, uh, but one cannot say that in the future, I mean, the only thing we can
00:08:15say with certainty is that the Russians are aggressive, and they
00:08:19are also constantly becoming more aggressive, and that they are always
00:08:22trying to see where the limit is before
00:08:25NATO reacts uh,
00:08:28harder than this, so but I think it's the absolutely
00:08:32right way the government has handled this case. Yesterday it was a signal flare that
00:08:36was sent towards a Danish
00:08:38military helicopter,
00:08:41do you see it as a provocation or do you see it as an
00:08:43attack? I see it as a
00:08:47provocation in reality,
00:08:50and what we can see with the Russians at the moment is
00:08:54that they are becoming more and more intrusive, uh, we saw it
00:08:57here a few days ago, also very close to the
00:09:01Polish border, uh, and there have also
00:09:04been other similar incidents elsewhere,
00:09:08uh, so there is no doubt that the Russians
00:09:12are... uh, I mean, they are aggressive and they are
00:09:15testing us, and that's also why, when we are tested by
00:09:19an aggressive party, uh, and a
00:09:22malicious party like Russia, well, then we must also stand together, and that's
00:09:26of course also why I fully and completely support the government in this. You've said a lot of
00:09:30times that we must stand together, and stand together with the government in this, is it also
00:09:33to send a signal to the Danes that they shouldn't be worried about this?
00:09:37Well, that's what it is, too, I mean, but now it's also
00:09:40addressed to the parliamentary parties, that it is absolutely crucial
00:09:44that there is no, that there are no questions raised about
00:09:47our distancing from the
00:09:50Russians. What did you learn about the incident in there
00:09:54today? For good reason, I cannot say anything about what we learned about the incident, but
00:09:58I think we got an excellent briefing about it, and I
00:10:02am fully satisfied with what the government has presented. We have
00:10:05spoken with an expert on TV2 who says that it is clear, yes, and Alexandersen, whom
00:10:09we are now going to hear from, probably can't go into more detail. But let's just
00:10:13hear how he perceived
00:10:15the briefing. Alexandersen, what kind of
00:10:18briefing was this? It was a briefing about the incident that happened
00:10:22yesterday, where a uh. Fenec
00:10:26uhm helicopter, uh, I can also
00:10:28do this, what came out of this briefing for you? I came out of the briefing, we
00:10:32were informed that a Russian
00:10:35frigate had fired signal flares at a
00:10:38helicopter, and if they had hit, the crew might have been in
00:10:42danger onboard the helicopter, and that is of course not acceptable, it is being
00:10:45communicated, and we will strengthen surveillance, we
00:10:49will not back down, that is an important signal, and it is also important to
00:10:52say that we are not activating article four and five.
00:10:56"And in the Danish People's Party, we agree with the government not to do that, and why
00:10:59is that? Because we
00:11:02are, it's too violent
00:11:06a reaction, but
00:11:09aggressive, and we don't know if the
00:11:13captain overreacted, or if it's part of a larger
00:11:16aggression from Russia, we don't know. Is it
00:11:20your impression that the Danish helicopter did what it was supposed to do, I mean
00:11:24can this?" "No, the Danish helicopter has done what it
00:11:28always does, and what we always do, and what is done internationally, when a
00:11:31vessel arrives, one monitors it. In this case,
00:11:35they were closer due to technology, it's completely
00:11:38common maritime law, so it is the Russians who overreacted, and they will be
00:11:42told that by the government. The last
00:11:45question, can't we just keep talking, I mean, shouldn't there be a
00:11:49harsher reaction at some point towards a Russia that goes further and further? Yes, but now
00:11:53you're talking about a harsh reaction.
00:11:55"There will also be a reaction, the Russian ambassador will be
00:11:58summoned, and we will strengthen surveillance, we will
00:12:02not back down, and that is an important signal to send, but we
00:12:06should of course not go to war with
00:12:08the Russians because of some signal flares sent up by an aggressive
00:12:12Russian frigate captain, that's not acceptable, and they will be told that, and now we are strengthening
00:12:16surveillance.
00:12:18And we shall hear from Markus Knutt from the Conservative People's Party,
00:12:21Defense Spokesperson,
00:12:24Markus Knutt. A briefing that you were keen on when you went in, what came out of
00:12:27it? Well, the most important thing for me was to express support for the
00:12:31government's line regarding summoning the Russian ambassador, but also that
00:12:35what we have requested, that on the one hand, article four or five is not activated,
00:12:38but that in addition to that, a conversation is held
00:12:42with our NATO allies, consult them, inform them,
00:12:46uh, so that this is not a unique Danish
00:12:49event, but something that should be seen in a larger
00:12:53context with the activities that have, among other things, happened in Germany at the Polish
00:12:56border and so on, but isn't that what article 4 is about? No, article 4, that's where you
00:13:00formally summon the member states to uh, to a
00:13:03consultation, and why is that too much? We believe we are not
00:13:07there yet, and it is also important for us to maintain calm and not escalate towards
00:13:10the Russians, but that parallel to that, we have informal
00:13:14conversations with our NATO allies - both to
00:13:17express their support, but
00:13:21also to have a dialogue about what we do
00:13:24together, I think that's the right level, of course there are many things you can't say, which we probably learned in there,
00:13:28what more can you say about what you learned about the Danish reaction to this,
00:13:31also in defense terms? Well, I think the Danish reaction, also from
00:13:35the defense side, has been the right one, you don't escalate
00:13:38unnecessarily, you also protect our soldiers who are out there, that is very, very
00:13:42important, so I think the defense has acted completely correctly here, uh,
00:13:45and what I have, as I said, requested, that we also have an informal dialogue with our
00:13:49partners without activating Article 4, I can then learn
00:13:52this morning from the minister that they are also doing that. What is your
00:13:56impression of what caused this situation to arise? I mean, is it
00:14:00a Russian, a Russian ship that shoots
00:14:03unprovoked, is it a Danish helicopter that does something it shouldn't? I mean, what is your impression of what really
00:14:07happened here? My impression is that the Danish defense, the Danish
00:14:10helicopter acted completely according to the international guidelines and according to
00:14:14the custom and routine that has been in place for many years in
00:14:17the area, but that the Russians, for one reason or another, choose to
00:14:21escalate very, very aggressively, and it is difficult not to also
00:14:25see it in the light of the incidents that have occurred at the Polish-Ukrainian border with
00:14:28drone attacks against trains, the incidents that have occurred in Leipzig in Germany, but that
00:14:32is of course just an observation I can make, now you have become a little wiser here in
00:14:35the ministry, do you see this as an attack from the Russian side? It is at least
00:14:39a very, very strong provocation, and these
00:14:42flares could very easily have hit this helicopter, which, as I
00:14:46understand it, was flying with the door open, and to get such a huge
00:14:49fireball inside, it could have resulted in fatalities, so
00:14:52it - it's hard not to see this as a very, very.
00:14:57Why won't you call it an attack? They're shooting fireballs through the air at a Danish
00:15:00helicopter? I don't think I'm the right person to say whether it's
00:15:04an escalation or an attack, I mean, this is by its very
00:15:08nature a distress flare used to signal that a ship is
00:15:11in distress at sea. But
00:15:14if it hits a target, it can do a lot of damage, and that's why it's
00:15:18serious. Last question from my side here, how close is your impression that it was,
00:15:21I mean, we hear they shot at this helicopter, how close is your impression
00:15:25that they were to hitting it? Yes, I can't say how close they were to actually
00:15:29hitting it, but they were certainly close enough that it wasn't just a random shot
00:15:33in the air, I mean, the helicopter flew at a distance that it
00:15:36has flown many times before, this was
00:15:40a routine flight, and they were close enough to
00:15:44hit it that this is a very, very serious incident. Yes, that's what Markus Knutt said, and of course there are
00:15:47details that he doesn't tell
00:15:51about, and we hope to hear from Defense Chief Michael Hylgaard,
00:15:55and the Defense Minister, we are of course trying to catch them to learn
00:15:59more about these details. For Niels Fastrup, when you sit back and
00:16:03listen to the few details that the politicians come out with, what would you like
00:16:06to have an answer to? Well, it's clear, I mean, this question of how,
00:16:10what exactly happened in the situation, what kind of Russian ship was it, where exactly
00:16:14was it, and how did the Danish helicopter fly, or
00:16:18did it not, and then of course also, I mean, as also emerges
00:16:21here, have the Russians, the Russian naval ships, have they received a new
00:16:25order of conduct from their, from their supreme
00:16:28commander, their headquarters, stating that they must now escalate when these
00:16:32incidents occur, and for example use this, this distress
00:16:36signal flare. Step, I mean, if someone comes and wants to take pictures of
00:16:39them, is there a change in the picture out there? I think that will also be really interesting
00:16:43for, but is it something we can ever be
00:16:46100% clear about if they
00:16:49have it? It is, it is something that some people have insight
00:16:53into, uh, and I mean, they get that kind of information, whether such
00:16:56new orders come to the Russian fleet, and then there is also, if it
00:17:00happens again, or if something even more violent happens next time, uh,
00:17:04that, that is also something I will certainly be following, or. And this in itself,
00:17:08and if there is a little more calm, even though the
00:17:11background, as I have also said earlier, is of course that the situation in
00:17:14the Baltic Sea, including in the Danish straits, is very tense at the
00:17:18moment. It was a military professional briefing,
00:17:22so I assume that Michael Hylgaard definitely
00:17:25spoke. What would you like to have an answer
00:17:29to? If you were at that briefing, Mads, what would you like to have an answer
00:17:32to? I would really like to know if there was anything at all in
00:17:36uh, so to speak, the operational pattern of both
00:17:39military units that stood out, meaning that was unusual. What could
00:17:43that be? For example, if the Danish helicopter came
00:17:47to fly a little closer than usual,
00:17:50uh, it doesn't sound like that from what we can hear
00:17:54the politicians say, uh, we hear at least
00:17:57some of them say, well, it happened exactly as
00:18:01usual, there was no, there was nothing that stood out, but
00:18:03still, uh, we also know in hindsight that...
00:18:07experiences from before, that the Russians, they sail around also in
00:18:11Danish waters, with, uh, I was almost about to
00:18:16vigilant, partly because of shadow fleets, but also because the Russians
00:18:20have learned the hard way that they can be attacked by drones, so to
00:18:24speak, anywhere, and we have also seen that they have fired
00:18:27warning shots at a buoy in the English Channel, so
00:18:31one knows that one should not get too close to Russian naval ships,
00:18:35has it happened here anyway by a far? Maybe there's no indication of it, but we're not
00:18:39completely clear yet, uh, completely
00:18:42clear, sorry, about the actions. Can we
00:18:46ever get that clarity, because now I'm thinking, is there simply
00:18:50video material, image material, just like a plane has a black
00:18:53box, can we in any way, uh, become clear about
00:18:56the specific incident?
00:18:59I mean, I would say, no, uh, maybe, we don't know, but
00:19:03given that it was a Fenec helicopter that was out, Fenec helicopters usually
00:19:07don't have permanently mounted video equipment
00:19:11or infrared cameras, uh, Seahawk
00:19:14helicopters, for example, do, some of the large rescue helicopters can also
00:19:18have that, it is equipment that records
00:19:21video, so you would typically be able to find video recordings of
00:19:24it, given that we hear the head of the air force say that they were sitting and taking
00:19:28pictures out of an open door, and given that I know that usually Fenec
00:19:31helicopters don't have permanently mounted equipment, it was probably
00:19:35a regular handheld
00:19:37camera, uhm, whether it was a video camera or a still camera,
00:19:41I don't know, but looking at the helicopter type, I don't think
00:19:45we should expect to get a video recording of this,
00:19:49and this is the Fenec helicopter we see
00:19:52pictures of here, this is from an exercise, it's archive, that's also why we
00:19:56always write it up in the corner there, so
00:19:59that one doesn't think that this is a direct picture or doesn't think that it is from
00:20:03the incident yesterday, the incident, which I still
00:20:06lack a clear answer to, whether it happened in the evening,
00:20:10when we actually got the message from the Defense Command, I believe it
00:20:14was, or whether it was in the afternoon, there is some doubt about that, I will certainly
00:20:18uh say so as soon as we know, the word "they"
00:20:21is constantly used, Niels Fastrup, so I assume there was
00:20:25more, of course there was more than one person in the helicopter, there was both someone to
00:20:29pilot, there was of course also someone to take pictures, do we know anything about how many are
00:20:32normally, uh, normally in such helicopters when they
00:20:36uh fly around? around and take pictures,
00:20:39I mean, that's exactly the kind of question we should probably ask my good colleague Mads Korser, who
00:20:43has a deeper military professional knowledge of
00:20:46that kind, I certainly don't know, maybe Mads knows. So
00:20:50normally there are two crew members, there's a
00:20:53pilot, and then there's an assisting pilot or a
00:20:56navigator, uhm, and then it can be
00:20:58configured in different ways, it could easily be that there was another
00:21:02observer in the back seat, maybe even two observers, when they
00:21:06when they fly out, I mean, uh, so they open the
00:21:10rear side door, as we can see there, someone sitting there waving, uh,
00:21:13you can open it like that, and then point a camera out, so I would say,
00:21:17roughly between two and four onboard. Normally, they can
00:21:21manage with two onboard, they can also profile into
00:21:23it. Niels, uh, or
00:21:27Mads, do you know what the other Nordic countries do, do they
00:21:30also have helicopters of that kind, where they simply, uh,
00:21:34yes, fly around and move into those pockets, as
00:21:38you also talked about before, meaning away from their own waters, but
00:21:41uh, the pockets between their own waters and
00:21:45international waters, do they operate in the same
00:21:47way?
00:21:49I would say, probably, I mean, we know that there is increased
00:21:52activity in the Baltic Sea, uh, we know
00:21:56that NATO has been engaged in, and still is,
00:21:59still, still is engaged in an operation called
00:22:02Baltic Sentry, also in the form of such fixed
00:22:06surveillance capabilities, they test some, some, some
00:22:09drone equipment, they also patrol the air,
00:22:12uh, naval ships patrol around, so there is heightened
00:22:16vigilance, it happens in different ways with different tools. And
00:22:20it can be ships, it can be planes, it can be helicopters, it can even be drones, I think
00:22:23we can venture to say that, yes, I mean, all
00:22:27the Scandinavian countries do it to some extent, whether it happens exactly
00:22:31in the same way, I mean, a
00:22:34helicopter out, taking images, we don't know that, but
00:22:37one wants to physically have a rope and visually look at what kind of ships they are,
00:22:41so one, one, one, uh, one doesn't trust
00:22:44radar images alone, one especially doesn't trust
00:22:48these various Marine traffic surveillance sites, because
00:22:52the Russians typically don't appear there. Niels, does one
00:22:55have reason to be surprised about such a Russian frigate that
00:22:59is located in international
00:23:02waters? It could be that they were just on their way from A to
00:23:06B? Well, one does, at least in this way, that,
00:23:09according to my information, the Russians have,
00:23:13I don't know exactly when they started,
00:23:17but within a few years or within a few months,
00:23:20they started a new naval operation in our
00:23:23nearby waters, which aims to patrol and
00:23:27deter Denmark and other European countries from boarding
00:23:31the shadow fleet tankers, and there they have divided, among other things, the Baltic Sea, also the
00:23:34Danish waters into so-called patrol zones, that is what
00:23:38the Russians have done, and in each of these patrol zones there is a
00:23:41Russian warship, more or less permanently, which
00:23:45has the task of deterring Sweden or Germany or Denmark
00:23:48or Great Britain or France from boarding these uh,
00:23:52Russian, uh, excuse me, Russian shadow fleet tankers, and this
00:23:56military operation that Russia is conducting now, such a
00:23:59naval operation, is something new, that is, and something
00:24:03unusual, and a form of escalation,
00:24:06uh, and I think, without being sure, I could imagine that this is the
00:24:10context in which this incident should be seen, and just to be
00:24:14completely clear, when you say shadow fleet, what does that cover,
00:24:17well, these are these uh, typically old uh
00:24:21tankers that Russia operates and that Russia uses
00:24:25to sell, sail oil out of through the Danish straits to
00:24:29the world market to finance, among other things, the war in Ukraine. See, now we have
00:24:33again been in the archive. We like
00:24:35that archive, of course, when there is something relevant. Now I can't sit and point out
00:24:39what this is, these are Russian frigates, but it is at least
00:24:42relevant archive material, so what are we to
00:24:45imagine when Russia has a, a shadow fleet
00:24:49in place? Well, it's because the EU and
00:24:52other countries have introduced sanctions on Russian oil trade and have tried to
00:24:56shut down Russia's ability to sell oil and make money in that
00:24:59way, so Russia has launched a huge operation, where
00:25:03they have, I don't know if they have purchased or otherwise acquired
00:25:06hundreds of old
00:25:09oil tankers, which they now operate from the Russian side through
00:25:12shell companies in a way that bypasses these sanctions from the European
00:25:16side, so there are always tankers sailing in and out of
00:25:20the Baltic Sea loaded with oil to the world market, and that is the
00:25:24way Russia earns a very, very large part of the money right now, which they use for
00:25:28the war in Ukraine, and that is, in turn, also, so Russia has a
00:25:32strategic interest in these ships being able to sail, and
00:25:35conversely, Europe and NATO are also trying to shut this down, so
00:25:39that generates a very, very tense situation in the Baltic Sea and also
00:25:42in Danish waters, and it could be something like what we see here,
00:25:46now we are not very close to it, but well. so it
00:25:50could be Niels, that was actually the question,
00:25:53Niels, it could be, yes, that, that, those are some,
00:25:57some, some tankers, as we see here, large, large
00:26:01tankers, I don't know, 200, 250 meters long, uh, typically a little
00:26:04older, that sail up through Storebælt almost daily, I would
00:26:08think, uh, that is, and which Russia wants to sail and which
00:26:12NATO, from the European side, wants to shut down, and that generates some tension,
00:26:16without me being able to say for sure that the incident yesterday is
00:26:19related to it, it is at least a context around what is happening
00:26:22now, we certainly can't say
00:26:25at all, now we go to Christiansborg to my good colleague Anja
00:26:29Westvald, because you have caught - is it conservative? Mona
00:26:32Jul,
00:26:35It's the conservative Mona Jul, what's happening here at Christiansborg is that
00:26:38the parties are going to group meetings, that's where you get the most
00:26:42up-to-date information about what's going on in Danish politics, and one must say,
00:26:46that the most important thing today is last night's incident, Mona
00:26:49Jul, uh, you have received a briefing, your defense spokesperson has received
00:26:52a briefing over at the Ministry of Defense, maybe you have too, what do you say about the way
00:26:56Denmark has reacted, have we been sharp enough by
00:27:00summoning the Russian ambassador for talks. Yes, I think
00:27:04it's a very serious situation, we see Russia trying to intimidate
00:27:07us, and we must not let that affect us in any way, but we
00:27:11also recognize that there is a pattern now,
00:27:14Leipzig Halle, uh, we had a
00:27:17plane over Litown recently that was supposed to shoot down a drone, we
00:27:21had the train between Ukraine and
00:27:24Poland, and now we see this with Flares, which
00:27:28are enormously dangerous, and shooting up, you can't be very
00:27:31precise, but it could of course have destroyed a helicopter
00:27:35and created a very, very serious situation,
00:27:38fortunately that didn't happen. I think
00:27:42to make sure to address it at the level that needs to be addressed in the
00:27:46first instance, and that is the Russian ambassador, who needs to have a
00:27:49really thorough talk with the Danish government, because we certainly cannot keep
00:27:53watching this. He has already been in talks several
00:27:56times at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about various previous incidents. Is
00:27:59it good enough when one now sees something that resembles direct attacks from
00:28:03a military vessel on a military
00:28:06helicopter? Well, in this situation, that is exactly what
00:28:09is needed, but it is clear that we also have a clear expectation that there
00:28:13will be cooperation, a dialogue across NATO countries, it's good that we are
00:28:17members of NATO, it's good that we are members of the EU, so we have someone we
00:28:20can talk about this with, with whom we can stand together, and possibly also return
00:28:24together about it. Um, we have, as you
00:28:28say, seen a number of cases around Europe, and most recently here
00:28:32in Denmark, but isn't it time that NATO says,
00:28:35now we must activate some of these
00:28:38solidarity clauses we have, for example the one that says we must
00:28:42react collectively and significantly, not militarily, but in the form of collective
00:28:46protests, but there is no doubt that what we are trying to
00:28:49avoid, I imagine, is to avoid activating precisely some of these
00:28:53pacts, because then you also escalate the situation, and what is really important
00:28:57now is to hit it precisely, and I think the government is doing that here by
00:29:00bringing in the ambassador, but it's not like we should keep
00:29:04watching as we receive threats, and something very, very serious
00:29:08could actually have happened here, we cannot keep watching that. We are in full swing with an
00:29:12arms build-up in Denmark, buy, buy, buy, said the Prime Minister, we still
00:29:15lack a large number of purchases, for example at sea, do
00:29:19you think it's going too slowly with us getting started with our arms build-up?
00:29:23Yes, I think it is. I think everything has gone too slowly, there is
00:29:26no doubt that the intentions have been there. I think we stand together in the
00:29:30Danish Parliament, most of the parties fortunately, that we must arm
00:29:34Denmark, but there is also no doubt that patience is wearing
00:29:38thin from some of our sides. I usually say that there is
00:29:42nothing that anyone can propose that we don't want faster and more of, and that is precisely
00:29:45the situation with the Danish defense still. Is this something,
00:29:49do you think, that calls for accelerating and you, who are
00:29:52in the defense committee, pushing for some of this to be implemented
00:29:56faster, for example frigate purchases,
00:29:59well, you can't just buy a frigate unfortunately, I mean. it takes
00:30:03years, and therefore one must find out what else we need to
00:30:06do, but there is no doubt that the pressure that the Conservative People's Party
00:30:10is putting on this government, as we did on the previous one and the one before that and
00:30:14many years ago, is to strengthen the Danish defense, it is
00:30:17truly the eleventh hour, we need to gear up on that. Good, so
00:30:21when do you expect something concrete to happen,
00:30:25that means that next time we have such an incident, we will be
00:30:28perhaps better able to respond in some way instead.
00:30:32you can't attack a Russian frigate, but are we well
00:30:35enough equipped to react in the situation? Well, I
00:30:39think the Danish defense, with the means and resources available,
00:30:43has an understanding of what needs to happen, also in
00:30:46concrete situations, also this dangerous situation we have just
00:30:49experienced, so I am not worried about that, everyone knows what they need to
00:30:53do, but I am worried that the Russians will continue to
00:30:56make threats against us. That.