The commander of the Dutch army on Thursday called on the Netherlands to become better prepared for a potential future war with Russia.
“The Netherlands should be seriously afraid of war, and our society should prepare for it…Russia is getting stronger, ” Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen, commander of the Royal Netherlands Army, said in an interview with the newspaper De Telegraaf.
The Netherlands, one of the founding members of NATO, has been a strong ally of Ukraine in the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022. Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, announced last week that his country will soon deliver 18 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to aid in its defense against Putin’s forces.
Photo by ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Wijnen, who is stepping down from his role as the top general for the Dutch army on January 1, said the Netherlands should follow the example of other countries that lie close to Russia. He cited military preparations made by nations such as Sweden, Finland and the Baltic states.
“The Netherlands should not think our safety is guaranteed because we are 1,500 kilometers away [from Russians],” Wijnen said.
Newsweek reached out to the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs via an online contact form on Thursday for comment.
The Netherlands has not has compulsory conscription since 1997, but the country has started a voluntary one-year program for young people. Wijnen told De Telegraaf that he hopes the program attracts people to join the military while noting that the best way to keep Russia from invading the Netherlands is to maintain a big army.
“There is only one language that Russia understands, and that is one of a strong military,” Wijnen said. “The Netherlands must learn again that all members of society must be ready when things go wrong.”
Wijnen is not the only European official to call on his country to become better prepared for the potential of war in the aftermath of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In a December 16 interview with Welt am Sonntag, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius spoke of the need for Germany to better equip its military by increasing its weapons protection. Pistorius said Germany needed to be able to sufficiently defend itself as well as provide arms to Ukraine since the U.S. could decrease its involvement in Kyiv’s war with Russia.
“We Europeans should be more involved in guaranteeing security on our continent. We have about 5-8 years to make up for what we have lost, from the point of view of the armed forces, industry and society,” Pistorius said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.