Toespraak van minister Hennis-Plasschaert bij gelegenheid van de 60e jaarlijkse bijeenkomst van de Parlementaire Assemblee van de NATO

Toespraak | 22-11-2014

Chairman, honorable representatives,

It is my great pleasure to be here today, and thank you so much for the invitation.

This afternoon the commanders of the German and Dutch land forces will be speaking with you about their remarkable increased cooperation.

As I truly value greater international defense cooperation, I am very excited about this. The increase in German-Dutch cooperation demonstrates what can be done. For example, not only do we have a joint headquarters in Munster, the Dutch Airmobile Brigade was recently fully integrated into the German Division Schnelle Kräfte

My country’s cooperation with Belgium is definitely worth mentioning also. The Dutch and Belgium cooperation resulted in fully integrated navies and there is much more to come. We are working on integrated air policing, including Quick Reaction Alert and national Renegade tasks. I would say this is a perfect example of a smarter defensive posture.

I do hope that these actions may serve as a source of inspiration for further cooperation between allies. I am convinced that we can deal with current and emerging threats only if allies work together. Allies or combinations of Allies will have to provide NATO with the necessary military means to act. This means that each Ally is both indispensable and responsible for the Alliance’s security. NATO’s military shortfalls can be fixed only by developing joint approaches.

The changed security situation

Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me - for a moment - to reflect on the situation at the end of 2013.

The NATO summit in Wales was still months away and there was no clarity on what the central theme should be. Our major operation in Afghanistan was coming to an end, and it was unclear what important tasks would take its place.

Now, one year later, everything is different — or at least seems to be different. Clearly, the conflict in Syria was already heavily in progress and the situation in Iraq was far from stable. The omens of the crises that led to clear-cut conclusions in Wales were intensifying back then.

However, what was still simmering below the surface at the time took a dramatic turn in the spring of 2014, namely, the Russian occupation and annexation of the Crimea, the instability brought by the actions of ISIL, the violation of international law right up to the borders of the Alliance and lastly, the downing of flight MH-17. By now, surely, we all agree that these events have a direct impact on our own security and prosperity.

The new threats and challenges facing the Alliance were thus central to the NATO summit in September. And let’s face it: unfortunately the troubles are not limited to the Eastern front but also present in North Africa, the Sahel-region and the Middle East. Fires are indeed burning around the world.

The issue is not only a traditional territorial threat, but also the threat of terrorism, religious radicalism and collapsing states resulting in large flows of refugees and displaced persons. The world has become more complex and less predictable. I would go so far as to say that nowadays, uncertainty is the most important factor affecting international relations.

Shortly after taking office, Secretary General Stoltenberg correctly remarked: There is no contradiction between a strong NATO and our continued efforts to build a constructive relationship with Russia.

However, it increasingly appears that Russia is not prepared to fulfill the conditions upon which such a relationship should be founded. It behooves a country to respect international law not only with words, but also with definitive actions.

Regrettably, after many years of a good and predictable partnership, the relationship between NATO and Russia has again become a complex chess game.

Consultations have faltered. Instead of economic, political and military cooperation, the dialogue centers on more sanctions. At the same time, it is important that the door to a broader communication remains open and that the NATO-Russia Council plays a role in this dialogue.

• For now, however, the media continues to broadcast images of unmarked military trucks from Russia entering those areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by the separatists.
• The security situation in the area where we are trying to salvage the remains and possessions of the victims of flight MH17 has to be established on a daily basis.
• Winter is setting in and new battles seem to be imminent. The ceasefire signed in Minsk, which gave us hope in Wales, appears to have crumbled.
• Russian military aircraft and ships are increasingly found in the European waters and air space.

To put it mildly, there is undiminished cause for concern. Let me be clear: none of us want to have a new Cold War, but a stable relationship with Russia does require a different response posture than what we have been using for the past 25 years.

Outcome of NATO summit

Ladies and gentlemen,

NATO never has to take pains to prove its raison d'etre. Whenever we are at the point of asking ourselves “What’s next?” an ominous reply with a serious crisis, unfortunately, follows.
NATO was needed in the Balkans and in Afghanistan, NATO was needed to fight piracy, and suddenly NATO is needed for a task that is at the core of the organization’s founding principle: to offer security to allies that are directly being threatened.

At the summit in Wales, transatlantic ties were not only reaffirmed, but given an extra boost through the Readiness Action Plan and the Defense Spending Pledge.
Following 25 years of not having to change our approach, collective defense is now emphatically demanding our attention.

Clearly, NATO's increased presence in the eastern part of the Alliance and its higher readiness require extra efforts from all 28 allies, including the Netherlands.
Therefore, the Netherlands has contributed to reassurance measures with its F-16s as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission, naval vessels in NATO's Standing Naval Forces as well as air-to-air-refueling capacity for the AWACS.

During the summit in Wales, the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) spurred measures to improve the readiness and responsiveness of the NATO Response Force. And as we all know, the aim of the Readiness Action Plan is to respond in a rapid, flexible and adequate manner to the changing security situation.

In this context a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) is to be established within the NRF that makes it possible to react within days to threats wherever they occur on the borders of the NATO Treaty Area. To make it credible, flexible, affordable and durable, units will be deployed and will practice on a rotational basis.
Together with Germany and Norway, the Netherlands will make an important contribution to the NRF in 2015. We are also looking into the possibility of contributing to the interim capacity for the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, as well as ways to work together with SACEUR to develop exercises testing our higher readiness in practice.

Defense Spending

Ladies and gentlemen,

Freedom does not come without a price. That is why in Wales the heads of state and government reaffirmed the importance of making adequate funding available for defence.

At the Wales Summit, the Netherlands disclosed that its cuts to defence spending have come to an end. Last autumn, the government rescinded previously agreed cuts, and in the budget for next year an additional amount was made available for defence.
Having said that, I would also like to emphasise that we need to look at not just the amount of defence spending, but also at how to use the funds more effectively.
I believe we should also look into defence capabilities that NATO really needs, without exclusively emphasising the task of collective defence. The Alliance's other two core tasks – crisis management and cooperative security – are equally as important and should also be kept in mind.
In the coming months, the Dutch government will look into what the recent changes in the international security situation mean for the Dutch level of ambition level. How to strengthen our military striking power so we continue to be able to respond to international developments? The results are expected next Spring.

More public support through increased transparency

Ladies and gentlemen,
The events on the eastern and southern flanks of NATO have not left our respective societies untouched. Three-quarters of the Dutch population now considers NATO’s membership important for the security of the Netherlands compared to around 50% at the end of last year.

We will also need to make clear how the money spent on defense is allocated. Since I took office I have advocated for more transparency within NATO on what we receive as output for the financial input we provide. By making what we do transparent and concrete, we may convince our societies that investing in the armed forces is a wise investment. I have decided to make public the input–output matrix of the Dutch contribution to NATO and to offer this to parliament. It is my opinion that more countries should do the same.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In closing, I would like to point out once more that each and every Ally is both indispensable and responsible for the Alliance’s security.

I sincerely hope that this meeting in The Hague will be an incentive for all of us to continue our discussions not only about the defense budget, but also about topics such as transparency and the need for greater international defense cooperation.
When it comes to enhancing our strength, maximizing the use of our capabilities and to optimizing our joint operations … all of us should feel ownership. The reality is that all of us have global interests.
Robert Gates once said: “the lessons of history tell us we must not diminish our ability or our determination to deal with the threats and challenges on the horizons, because ultimately they will need to be confronted”.
And rightly so.