Henk Kamp came, saw and raised billions for the Dutch armed forces. In September, the VVD veteran became Minister of Defence, who had become orphaned after State Secretary Barbara Visser moved on to Infrastructure and Water Management and Minister Ank Bijleveld stumbled upon the Afghanistan file. Shortly afterwards, interim minister Kamp, who had already been here from 2003 to 2007, sounded the alarm about the shortage of personnel and the appalling state of the equipment in the army.
And see: in the coalition agreement, three billion euros will be structurally earmarked for defense in the coming years. “That is not just my job, but of the entire ministry and my predecessors,” Kamp emphasizes. He will be succeeded on Monday 8 January by Kajsa Ollengren (D66), who will be the Minister of the Interior for a few more days.
Now that his job is almost over, Kamp wants to say something about the state and the future of the armed forces. The 69-year-old minister looks cheerful when he receives the journalists in his office at the department. But he is concerned, he says, about the rapidly rising tensions surrounding Ukraine. “Russia’s unrealistic demand to withdraw NATO troops from the former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union countries resembles the creation of a negotiating position: we will swallow that demand again if you stop interfering with Ukraine. I think that’s a risky strategy.”
According to Kamp, it shows once again how important it is that the Netherlands now invests extra in the armed forces.
How did you get that extra money for Defense? Did you call Rutte?
“Rutte is always available for that, but I am reluctant to call someone who is so incredibly busy. Our communication was short and in writing. I also had contact with the negotiators and occasionally the informants.”
You asked for an extra four billion euros, is three billion euros enough?
Kamp begins with a speech about ‘operational readiness’, or the amount of troops and equipment that can be deployed immediately in an emergency. “We have a lot of stuff: transport helicopters, attack helicopters, planes, ships, armored vehicles, submarines. But operational readiness is below 50 percent. It must of course be close to 100 percent. That requires real money. I have mentioned five billion because this amount is needed to meet what has been agreed on defense spending in NATO. And with four billion you arrive at the average of the European NATO countries. Now Defense will receive half a billion extra in 2022, 1.9 billion the following year, then 4.1 billion, 4.2 billion and finally three billion on a structural basis. Well, with that you can really boost that operational readiness quite a lot – starting with better pay for the military in the lower ranks. They deserve that and that strengthens our position on the labor market.”
Read about it here the deficiencies in the armed forces
Isn’t all that money leaking away to the old defense buildings?
“That is not the intention. Defense real estate is in poor condition due to overdue maintenance. It is also impractical and for a large part spread all over the Netherlands. So we are going to concentrate the real estate on a number of locations. This means that new locations will be opened and locations will also close. A part will be made more sustainable and upgraded. And no, I’m not going to talk about which locations here.”
Don’t you also need money for new tasks of the armed forces?
“Yes. When I was here last time, I was dealing with conventional weapons. You also had nuclear weapons, but they were barely visible in the stable situation at the time. Now there are three major developments. First, autonomous weapons are on the rise; just look at the deployment of armed drones in Libya and Ethiopia. Secondly, there is a lot going on in space, with Russians who can disrupt our satellites with their satellites and Chinese who can shoot our satellites out of the sky. Third, there is the cyber threat. Information is stolen from companies, from governments and universities in the West from Russia, China and a few other countries. Cyber attacks are carried out and attempts are made with incorrect or suggestive information to incite the population against their own government. We are already investing a lot in defense against this, but we are actually tied behind our backs. Countries like Russia and China can do what they want, but we have ethical principles and rules.”
What needs to change in order to be more resilient?
“We need to have an adequate defense against cyber attacks, but that won’t work if you have to go through all the procedures and rules. There will be an adjustment of the new Wiv [Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten 2017, red.], but that will take some time. That’s why I, together with my colleague Kajsa Ollongren [nu nog Binnenlandse Zaken, D66] worked on a temporary amendment of the law in the form of a bill. I spent many hours every week on it for a few months. The next cabinet will have to decide on that.”
What should it contain?
“That we can defend ourselves more adequately against states that have an aggressive cyber policy. With such rapid decision-making that national security is prevented from being compromised.”
What can’t and should be included?
“I will not give any further examples. But the digital world knows no physical boundaries, computer servers are scattered all over the world. From a technical point of view, it is possible that country X hacks a hundred computers in various western countries, connects them and launches cyber attacks from there; then you don’t know where the attacks come from. Another thing are thick network cables that come ashore in the Netherlands. The Wiv from 2017 was intended to also include interception (interception, red.) on those cables. That has not happened since then, because the supervisor always rejects an application from the MIVD or AIVD.”
Read about it here the way military personnel collected data on civilians
A unit of the army, LIMC, has practiced fighting disinformation during the corona crisis by collecting large-scale data on social media. In addition, that unit also violated the privacy rules, according to an investigation by the privacy officer of the department. Bijleveld apologized for this and the LIMC was shut down.
Is an amendment to the law necessary to allow the armed forces to practice with disinformation?
“Militaries can practice within a virtual environment, but it is really different from what happens on social media in real life. So we will have to come up with something to be practiced to a reasonable degree. During a mission abroad, soldiers are allowed to collect such information independently. In the Netherlands this is only possible after a request for support by a civil authority. Nor do I believe that soldiers should be given that right independently in the Netherlands. You can only practice within the rules. And I don’t need to change any rules at this point.”
When the formation was stuck, you argued for an extra-parliamentary cabinet in which parties can participate without a coalition agreement. Now parties that seemed bored with each other continue with each other.
“There will be a government in a composition that has lasted four years. That provides peace of mind. This is thanks to the VVD, a stable factor in the turbulent sea. But especially to Mark Rutte, who has managed all these years not so much to push through his own VVD story, but also to make compromises. I think that makes the VVD a positive element in a divided country.”
The VVD is the new CDA.
“Let me talk about the VVD. Our party is a binding element in an increasingly aggressive House of Representatives where it is increasingly difficult to form coalitions.”
When has Rutte’s best-before date expired?
“I think it’s really great what Rutte has in terms of workforce and how he keeps it up. I’ve seen him in six cabinets, but I can’t remember a single day of illness. So I already said: if I have to put a bottle of wine on it, I’ll give it another eight years.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 4, 2022
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