Dutch armed forces not up to facing Russia, Defense State Sec. is told

The Dutch armed forces are no match for the Russian army. That was the message to the new State Secretary of Defense Christophe van der Maat (VVD) during a working visit to the Royal Netherlands Navy in Den Helder, on which De Telegraaf reported. "I come to places where I think: gosh, we let our people work here? It feels super uncomfortable that I've been responsible for this for a month now," Van der Maat told the newspaper.

The State Secretary promised a speedy recovery. "I'm going to work like crazy to get rid of all the backlogs. Ensuring sufficient ammunition, equipment, and trained personnel is now more necessary than ever. Our NATO allies must be able to count on us," he told the newspaper.

Concentrating locations is the solution, according to the State Secretary. That means that barracks will have to close, but no decision has been made on which and how many, he said. "The entire program can take ten to 15 years. But every euro that we have to spend too much on real estate, we cannot invest in new equipment and replenishing the ammunition stocks," Van der Maat said to De Telegraaf. 

A large majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, demanded more money go to Defense during this Cabinet term in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Kamer supports the Cabinet's policy to support Ukraine and punish Russia.

A motion by D66 parliamentarian Sjoerd Sjoerdsma asked the Cabinet "to look for ways to structurally invest extra in Defense during this Cabinet term, without this being at the expense of other investments." The motion received support from VVD, CDA, ChristenUnie, PvdA, GroenLinks, JA21, Volt, SGP, and independent MP Pieter Omtzigt.

Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in a debate about the war on Monday that she will map out how Defense can grow towards the NATO standard - spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on military apparatus. 

The Cabinet will invest over 10 billion euros extra in Defense in the coming years . This means that the Cabinet is not yet meeting the NATO standard. However, it does bring the Netherlands up to the average of the European NATO countries.