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A new, small, Dutch mission in Afghanistan. Hard…

How to stay in Afghanistan while withdrawing? Such is the squaring of the circle to which the Dutch Prime Minister, the Liberal Mark Rutte, is trying to respond. Last formula found: set up a police training mission (on which most parties agree) with a robust environment. Very robust even since some Dutch plans mentioned the deployment of several F-16s and at least 250 soldiers to protect 50 trainers. Quite justified for the American ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder (also a little Dutch since he was born in The Hague) who considers that it is up to each country to ensure its protection and multiplies the contacts days to convince Dutch politicians. Ditto for the former Secretary General of NATO, the Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (CDA) who considers that it is also a matter of international prestige for the Netherlands.

In fact, everything remains vague. And on the draft adopted by the Cabinet on Friday, and which must be presented to the Chamber, the Dutch government remains very evasive on the format. The fall of the previous government, precisely on the mission in Afghanistan (1), is still fresh in everyone's mind. The police mission would not take place in Uruzgan (a region that the Dutch soldiers left) - as envisaged for a moment - but in Kabul and in three other provinces (we are talking about the north of the country where already officiating, in concert, Germans and Belgians). A project which above all, quote several Dutch colleagues, allows the Dutch Prime Minister not to arrive "empty-handed" at the NATO summit in Lisbon, on November 19 and 20.

Politically, the question is indeed delicate. Even if nothing is obligatory, it is a tradition in the Netherlands that soldiers are only engaged outside the borders if this mission receives clear majority approval from the political parties. But it is far from being the case. The government is playing tight. However, if the police mission collected the consent of most parties, a slightly more "extensive" mission would be difficult to pass. In this case, everyone makes their accounts. The government can count on the support of the Liberals of the VVD and the Christian Democrats of the CDA, CU and the SGP (62 votes) and possibly on those of the D66 and the Greens (10 votes each, supporters of a police mission under the aegis of the EU but hostile to a combat mission, especially under the NATO flag for the Greens). And he has to do with a determined opposition made up of the populist right PVV, the left-wing SP party and animal rights defenders PvD (41 votes). In fact, it is the social democrats with their 30 votes who can make the balance on the subject. With, as the daily Volkskrant reminds us, strong reluctance from the base. The president of the young socio-democrats, Jelle Menges, has just published a column estimating that “ we have no business in Afghanistan (2).

(1) Read on Brussels2:

(2) Read here in Dutch: Jelle Menges; 'We zijn uitgediend in Afghanistan'

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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