nl flag go to the original language article
This article has been translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The news agency is not responsible for the content of the translated article. The original was published by ANP.

Dutch Minister Veldkamp: we need to reorganize, partly outside the EU

by AI | 28.Feb 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Dutch minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs) believes that Europe should reorganize itself, including with countries that are not part of the European Union. According to him, this is necessary to respond to the statements of the Americans, that Europe should take more care of its own security.

The EU member states discuss how the EU can strengthen its defense, and also that of Ukraine.

BRUSSELS (ANP) – Veldkamp is thinking of cooperation with the United Kingdom and Norway “and others who want to join,” he said Monday before the start of the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers. “We will have to organize ourselves. That will also partly take place outside the EU. That may come as a shock to many people in Brussels in these beautiful shiny buildings, but reality forces us to do so.”

Veldkamp values transatlantic relations, he said in Brussels. “But we have realistic expectations about what that means. As Europeans, we will have to organize ourselves now. That is not necessarily the EU and EU institutions.”

He sees a relationship with the US like the French had under President Charles de Gaulle (1959-1969). He turned against American supremacy within NATO, among other things. “We are at the beginning of a new era, and his (Trump) statements show that we have all become Gaullists in a short time,” said Veldkamp.

European countries are currently discussing a force in Ukraine in case a peace deal emerges from talks between the US and Russia. “That will become much more of a military force that can support Ukraine. Not on the front lines, but behind them. And can increase deterrence for Ukraine. So that Putin no longer gets the idea of attacking the country,” Minister Veldkamp said about this in Brussels.

(February 24, 2025)