Danish Ambassador: Building Cyber Defenses Denmark’s Key Priority

Posted: June 18th, 2017

By Ambassador Lars Gert Lose

Lars Gert Lose is the current Ambassador of Denmark to the United States. Prior to arriving in Washington he held the position as Permanent Under-Secretary of State, where he served as Chief Adviser on Foreign Affairs to Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Ambassador Lose have had a long career within the Danish Foreign Ministry. He started his career in 1997 by becoming Head of Section in the EU Coordination Office. Since then, he has held a range of high-level positions within the MFA: such as Private Secretary to Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller (2004-2008) and Head of the Foreign Minister’s Office (2008-2011).

President Donald Trump made it abundantly clear at the recent NATO heads of State meeting in Brussels that he wants to see members of the transatlantic alliance boost their military spending. Denmark, the only Nordic country that is a member of both NATO and the European Union, has been a committed ally of the United States, a strong supporter of transatlantic cooperation, and a key partner on defense and security cooperation issues. The Cipher Brief’s Mackenzie Weinger sat down with Danish Ambassador to the United States Lars Gert Lose for a wide-ranging chat on NATO, counterterrorism, Arctic issues and cybersecurity

The Cipher Brief: I wanted to start with NATO, since that’s one of the administration’s central focuses. President Trump has criticized NATO allies as not paying enough for defense — is Denmark on its way to increasing its military spending? How significant is this to the U.S.-Denmark relationship?

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