The Dutch weapon export to Pakistan is growing, that can be a problem for collaboration with India

The photos after the ministerial maintenance in New Delhi breathe diplomatic politeness. Minister Ruben Brekelmans (VVD, Defense) hands over his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, it looks like Delft Blue. By press release Van Defense shows De Meeting, during a safety conference in March, that « the Netherlands wants to contribute to safety and stability in the Indo-Pacific ». After which a quote from Brekelmans follows: « With all geopolitical grimness it is important to strengthen the ties with ‘unbound’ India. »

One sensitive subject remained undisputed among all polite features. Almost immediately after the meeting, however, it found a road to Indian media via ‘sources’. It concerned the sale of military goods by the Netherlands to Pakistan: India’s arch enemy. According to India, the Netherlands helps with those arms exports a country that is guilty of terrorism.

The Netherlands endangers both the safety of India and the stability of the region

According to New Delhi, Pakistan also has ties with terrorist organizations, for example in Kashmir, the disputed region that has caused tensions and conflicts between the two countries for decades. In April the conflict flared up for ten days after an attack by Muslim extremists in a tourist resort in the part of Kashmir controlled by India. In addition, 26 people died. That too was Pakistan’s work, says New Delhi.

« Consider » terrorism sponsor « Pakistan does not like, India asks the Netherlands, » headed the The Times of India on March 19. According to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh Pakistan, the Netherlands would « equip with technology and defense equipment » with which the country joins both the safety of India and the stability of the region.  » When NRC Inquiries in both New Delhi and The Hague, Foreign Affairs and Defense in The Hague only wanted to say the following: « We make no statements about the content of diplomatic conversations with other countries. » The messages were not denied.

Army exercises

The Netherlands cannot simply ignore the request from Singh reported by the Indian media. The Hague really wants the political and economic ties with India – self -proclaimed captain of the Global South – Custom. Work is being done on a ‘strategic partnership’, which should lead to collaborations in all kinds of areas. In the meantime, discussions are being made carefully about joint army exercises.

Calculated this week, the partnership would be discussed during the state visit of India’s prime minister Narendra Modiincluding state banquet with King Willem-Alexander. But the newest phase in the conflict around Kashmir threw a spanner in the works: Modi canceled the visit. Instead, the Minister of Foreign Affairs came, Subrahmanyam Jaishankartwo days to The Hague.

The reports about Singh’s request to Brekelmans to no longer export weapons to Pakistan, draw attention to a subject uncomfortable for the Netherlands: the grown military trade with Islamabad. For decades, Pakistan was a pariah for The Hague. Since it has built an atomic bomb with the help of stolen nuclear technology from the Netherlands in the 1980s, a arms embargo applied. That changed bit by bit over the past ten years. Pakistan crawled from his isolation.

That’s how Pakistans helped Marine for example European countries To keep pirates who threaten the (Dutch) merchant navy in the Gulf of Aden.

Peak

The collaboration also grew in other areas. In the period 2020-2024, the Netherlands rose in the ranking of Weapon suppliers to Pakistan. Although China leads that list with more than 80 eighty percent of all deliveries of weapons (aircraft, tanks, etc.) and technology. However, the Netherlands is a striking second with on average more than 5 percent and a peak in 2024, according to recent figures From research center Sipri in Stockholm. The growth contrasts with the more or less constant arms trade in the Netherlands with India. The list of arms suppliers there is completely dominated by large countries such as the US, Russia and France, supplemented with Israel.

The military trade with Pakistan took place after the Cabinet-Schoof arrived last July. The Netherlands follows the European agreements for arms trade ‘absolutely’. In addition, there are significantly more rejections for Pakistan compared to India, « Minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs, NSC) emphasized to Indian journalists during a recent visit to New Delhi. That difference also shows figures (early 2004-March 2025) that are his own ministry provided at the request of NRC. The number of permits granted is higher from 2004 than the number of refusals for Pakistan. Since July last year there were no refusals at all.

It is remarkable that the arms trade under the sheaf cabinet went on. « No sale of weapons to Islamic countries, » stated the PVV, Now the largest coalition party, then from the opposition.

The two patrol vessels of Damen are equipped to perform attacking tasks in addition to exploratory, but also attacking tasks

It was a position that PVV MP Raymond De Roon actively carried out during treatments of the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Both party leader Wilders, who was threatened several times from Pakistan because of his anti-Islam position, and Van Roon stated June last year critical questions to the cabinet. « Why is the Netherlands going to cope with a country where daily death threats are fired at a Dutch representative? », Was the first question.

The minister who has had to decide on the export permits for arms deliveries since July last year, is from PVV Huize. Reinette Klever (foreign trade) has not banned Islamic countries. The leader is Gulf State Qatar with the purchase of armored vehicles (worth 2 million euros) and radar technology (3 million). Oman ordered parts for helicopters worth 1 million.

Exhaust gas systems

What bought Pakistan in the last five years in the Netherlands about which the Indian defense minister Singh is worried? In The Excel files of Buza Pakistan has been popping up a few times since 2020. In terms of larger orders, it concerns naval vessels and associated radar technology. Shipbuilder Damen supplied a total of four 100 -meter -long patrol ships for the Pakistani navy, two in 2020, and another two from 2022. This was followed by orders resulting from the delivery of the military vessels, such as ‘water -cooled exhaust gas systems for patrol vessels’, placed on August 22 last year.

As a result of the – then – large -scale cuts on the armed forces, the Netherlands sold two old mines sweepers in 2021. For an apple and an egg, Pakistan bought the Hr.Ms. Haarlem and Hr.Ms. Middelburg: a maximum of 75,000 euros. Thus the overview. Marine connoisseur Jaime Karremann explains the low amount from the unusability of the old ships. « It was probably not about the ships themselves, but only about usable parts, » he says. « They could be transferred relatively easily to other mine sweepers about which Pakistan already had. »

The weapons deliveries to Pakistan through the usual tests that Foreign Affairs uses in a European context (are they used to violate human rights, do they increase tensions in the region, are they being used defensively or offensive?). Special attention during the testing is for Kashmir. Like this then wrote Foreign Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag (D66) In 2020 about the export of the two patrol vessels of Damen: “Pakistan is engaged in a territorial conflict with India over the Kashmir region. Pakistan also has a complicated relationship with neighboring Afghanistan. Both regions are, however landlockedso that the end user of this transaction, the Pakistani navy, does not play a role in these regions. ” The existing balance between Pakistan and India « is not disturbed, » said Kaag in October 2020. The Indian defense minister Singh thinks differently.

The question is how long the approach to Foreign Affairs, as stated by Kaag at the time, can be sustained, says Weapon export expert Frank Slijper from peace organization Pax. He has been critically following the policy of the Netherlands for many years. During the most recent escalation « did you see that the conflict in Kashmir is not limited to this region, but gets pulling from a wider showdown, » he says. « The navy of both countries, in which India is many times larger and more powerful, also plays a role in this. Moreover, the two patrol vessels of Damen are equipped to perform attacking tasks in addition to exploratory, but also attacking tasks. » The ships have facilities for quick -fire cannons and the firing of light rockets.

Aircraft carrier

Pax export specialist sends A message from an American military website By, about the tensions between India and Pakistan. During the last short, limited war with Pakistan, the Indian supreme command, a large navy unit including an aircraft carrier, would have directed to the north of the Arab Sea. That was close to Pakistan, but far away (1,500 kilometers) from Kashmir. The Navy promotion was set up « to scare Pakistan, » said the message. It fits in a new doctrine from India, wrote the American magazine Foreign policy on May 13. This comes with the necessary muscle display of the Indian leader Modi, to intimidate Pakistan as ‘exporter of terrorism’.

The distinction that the Netherlands uses in arms sales between defensive and offensive use calls Slijper, « artificial. » This also applies, for example, to the radar equipment supplied to Pakistan, « most likely from Thales in Hengelo, » says Slijper on the basis of data from the aforementioned Sipri in Stockholm. « That radar can usually be used for defensive, exploratory and offensive tasks to find an attack goal. » Slijper says he has no indications that these radar technologies have played a role in the most recent armed conflict.

What does the future of the arms trade with Pakistan look like after the latest violence in and around Kashmir, in the light of the strategic partnership with India and resistance at the PVV? It will not be the shipbuilder Damen and the military rulers in Pakistan: they are enthusiastic and hope for more. A spokesperson for Damen says that there is nothing concrete about new deliveries in the pipeline.

The question is what ends up of the wishes of Damen and the Pakistani navy after India’s worries opposite Brekelmans. They give the assessment of new export requests to Pakistan an extra charge anyway. A Foreign Affairs and Defense spokesperson does not want to anticipate this. She does say: « In the treatment of applications, recent developments in the relationship between Pakistan and India are taken into account. »

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