Drawn-out cabinet talks create uncertainty over foreign missions

The drawn-out cabinet talks are delaying a decision on the Dutch participation in missions abroad whose mandate end in December this year, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.

This means 850 soldiers who would have to start a four-month training to prepare for the missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali and Lithuania on September 1, do not know where they are.

International allies in the EU, Nato and the UN are also losing patience with the Dutch. ‘Military planners have no time to wait for a new cabinet,’ the paper quotes an inside expert as saying.

On September 7 defence minister Jeanine Hennis is meeting European defence ministers in Brussels while foreign minister Bert Koenders is expected in Lithunania on the 7th and 8th. According to the paper, the departments of both ministers are ‘frantically preparing a letter on the future of the missions’.

Divisions

It is expected a decision on the Dutch participation in the missions will be taken by the caretaker government.  But, the Volkskrant writes, the parties are divided on the subject.

The VVD would prefer not to send troops to Mali but this would go against the wishes of Labour foreign affairs minister Koenders. A possible compromise of another year for the 290 Dutch troops deployed there may present a solution, the paper writes.

Participation in the mission in Lithuania, where 270 troops are currently helping to secure the country’s eastern border with Russia, is expected to continue.

The Dutch presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to be continued and increased, with F16 fighter planes sent to support troops in Iraq. At the moment he Dutch have 190 and 100 troops there respectively.