Rutte and Schoof hold each other firmly in Brussels, they need each other

Prime Minister Dick Schoof is already waiting, Wednesday afternoon in the hall of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. Then he sticks out his arm and walks straight at Secretary-General Mark Rutte who comes from the other side. Rutte gives him a hand and pulls him for one hogas Rutte always calls it. After a short hug, Rutte turns around so that he can greet the Dutch ambassador at NATO – but he does hold one hand on the shoulder of Schoof.

They desperately need each other. In five weeks, the NATO summit will be in The Hague where all 32 government leaders of the NATO countries will meet, if all goes well, to agree on an unprecedented increase in defense travels-especially in Europe, where it has been a war for three years.

We can talk about time schedules and such, but we have to increase the defense kisses

For Rutte it is important that the Dutch government makes that top a flawless show. And he needs a lot more money for defense. The Netherlands has only recently gone to the NATO agreement to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on the armed forces, which is expected to be 5 percent for all countries. But when exactly? Rutte Schoof can help with that: the more time the NATO countries get to get that percentage, the better it is for them.

A lot of money

Two weeks ago, Schoof had accidentally revealed that that standard should be met in 2032. Rutte does not want to say anything about that on Wednesday: not about the percentage, not over the year.

But it is certain: it will cost the Netherlands a lot of money in the coming years. According to Defense Ruben Brekelmans of the VVD, the Netherlands should spend sixteen to nineteen billion euros every year for the defense of the NATO territory. At the Spring Memorandum, in which the Coalition parties made PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB agreements about the money for this and next year, it had hardly been about. Those conversations were already difficult. Millions still had to be found in the last hours of the negotiations. Now it is about many billions.

In Brussels, Schoof says: « We can talk about timetables and such, but we have to screw up the defense cafés. » It’s all about peace in Europe, « To Hold the Peace« He brings his hands to each other in a small bowl, as if he also wants to hold the peace literally. A logical story, says Schoof, that the Dutch audience and parliament will understand. And with that story he will visit the coalition parties in the coming weeks. Only this week Schoof has made the first phone calls and he already knows it will be very easy and Gunnate Rutte that the top is a great success at the same time.

Budget rules

In Brussels, standing next to Rutte, Schoof does not want to exclude that the budget rules are relaxed to spend all the extra billions on defense. The European Commission has recently been allowed, as long as that extra borrowed money is spent on the defense of Europe. Heinen had recently said, also in Brussels, that the Netherlands would not do that.

Schoof, Prime Minister of the host country of NATO summit, also says in Brussels that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is very welcome in The Hague. He responds to the story that goes around: the Americans would object that Zensky is in the same meeting room as the NATO leaders. Rutte says again in Brussels that the invitations are not yet out. « As soon as the program is there, » he says, « the program is there. »

With the cooperation of Michel Kerres.

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