ANPUkrainian President Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 21:28
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Charlotte Waaijers
Germany correspondent
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Charlotte Waaijers
Germany correspondent
While he did it via a screen last year, Ukrainian President Zelensky personally addressed the audience at the security conference in Munich this year. His appeal: his country needs more weapons. But there was also room for a lesson.
“In Ukraine, we were not prepared for the occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014,” Zelensky said. “Eight years later we were slowly adjusted to aggression. Not only with weapons, but also psychologically.”
This currently looks very different in other European countries, the president said. “I don’t think any country in Europe is prepared for an invasion now. We are no better than you. We have had years of preparation.”
Europe on its own two feet
Now that vital US support for NATO is faltering with Donald Trump as a possible incoming president, one of the main questions of the Munich conference is how Europe can prepare to stand more on its own two feet.
Zelensky also responded to this. “Europe may be heading for a time when the decision to activate Article 5 of the NATO treaty will no longer have to be taken in Washington, but in European capitals.” He was referring to NATO’s fundamental principle that an attack on one member state is an attack on all.
He previously said that if allies no longer stand together against Russia, Putin will later also invade the Baltic states and Poland. “Psychologically, in terms of information and also in the media, you have not prepared the population,” he told the room full of government leaders, ministers and senior military officials.
“He absolutely has a point there,” agreed outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who himself took part in a discussion about building military cooperation afterwards in the hall of the conference.
When Rutte and Zelensky shook hands, Nieuwsuur asked what the Ukrainian president thinks about Rutte’s possible new job:
‘Rutte will be able to save unity in NATO’
“In the Netherlands, it would be very difficult for us to imagine that there is actually an invasion. And at the same time: it is already happening. Not a literal invasion, but we are already dealing with cyber attacks, with misinformation campaigns. So a lot is already happening,” said Rutte.
Yet support for Ukraine in the Netherlands is ‘maximum’, he emphasized. “We feel that our values are at stake, and ultimately our security. So we are certainly aware of the importance of that support to Ukraine.”
Defense budget
According to the outgoing Prime Minister, the fact that the Netherlands has so far failed to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, the minimum that NATO countries have jointly agreed upon, is because it requires very complicated political considerations. “You have to keep the government finances in order, it involves many billions.” He did point out that the Netherlands is now “at or close to” 2 percent.
Could he have done more earlier to achieve that goal faster? “Maybe we should have done that earlier. Yes, I am critical of that. But I do ask for your understanding that we had to make cuts everywhere during the major crisis of 2010, 2011, 2012. That was inevitable at the time.”
As far as Rutte is concerned, the Dutch population is prepared to spend even 4 percent on defense, a figure that outgoing Defense Minister Ollongren outlined as a scenario this week. “What she was looking at was: what if America no longer participates? But I don’t see that happening, and neither does she. It is also in America’s interest that our part of Europe remains free. And America runs a very big security risk if we were to fall under the influence of Russia.”
If it were nevertheless necessary, the Dutch would want to open their wallets. “No doubt about it. We are perhaps the most prosperous country in the world at the moment. At least in the top three or four. No unemployment, low national debt. People realize that if you want to keep that, you also have to be prepared to invest in it. I have no doubt about that.”
2024-02-17 20:28:12
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