Rasmussen pushing a button for a siren to mark Maersk Line’s launch Monday.
In a new sign of a thaw in ties between Moscow and Copenhagen, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, on Monday opened a new shipping line that Denmark’s Maersk will use to link Russia with Latin America. Relations have been chilly because of Denmark’s criticism of Russia’s handling of the war in Chechnya. Another irritant was Danish support of NATO’s eastward expansion.
Russian exporters are counting on the line to open new markets for coal mining equipment for Chile; fertilizers for Ecuador and Columbia; and food for Central America and the Caribbean, the Cabinet said in a statement Sunday.