Dutch gov't still counting on nuclear protection from United States
The Netherlands still counts on nuclear protection from the United States, despite the deteriorating relationship between Donald Trump and Europe, Minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs, NSC) said on Nieuwsuur. He also said that the Netherlands has not yet approached France about possibly joining their nuclear power, but he expects that a discussion about this will happen “one way or another” soon.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to remove American security guarantees for Europe. A year ago, when he was still running for president, he said that Russia could attack NATO countries that don’t meet the standard of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense. In recent weeks, Trump also publicly bickered with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed understanding for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Veldkamp still thinks the Netherlands can count on America. “Article 5 of NATO - one for all, all for one - is in place. That is clear. NATO is relevant, the U.S. also assures us of that. It is a robust political-military alliance. And the American nuclear umbrella is also there. That is a given,” he said on the current affairs program.
He did acknowledge that the American protection will likely decrease in the coming years. “So we will really have to do a lot more ourselves from Europe.”
More and more voices in Europe are calling for nuclear cooperation with the United Kingdom and France, which jointly have over 500 nuclear warheads. That is significantly less than the over 5,000 America and Russia each have, but the U.K. and France are currently considered more reliable allies.
French president Emmanuel Macron has said that he was open to considering the possibility of including allies under “his” nuclear umbrella. Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Denmark have already indicated that they are open to discussing this.
The coalition party VVD and the opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA think that the Netherlands should get involved in these talks, according to Nieuwsuur. “It is time to let go of taboos about joint nuclear deterrence,” VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz recently said in a parliamentary debate.
Veldkam does not want to publicly commit to this yet, but he does expect to have exploratory talks with European colleagues soon. He did stress that nuclear cooperation is easier said than done. The British nuclear warheads are largely techincally dependent on America, he pointed out as an example.
There also needs to be careful consideration about the issue of responsibility, Veldkamp said. “Ultimately, there is one person who is at the button. It will be the French president who will or will not press that button.” Currently, that is Macron. After the election in two years, it may well be the populist Marine Le Pen.
