The cost of the Netherlands’ support for the Nato mission in Afghanistan will have cost the treasury €2bn by the time it ends in 2010, according to researchers from the armed forces educational institute NLDA.

The defence and foreign affairs ministries put the official cost at €1.4bn. But, the Volkskrant says, that figure does not include the loss of aircraft and helicopters (€105m), the cost of replacing equipment (€200m), buying new equipment specially for the mission (€170m) and extra training (€30m).
In total, some 20,000 Dutch soldiers will have been involved in the mission since it began in 2002, the researchers said.