The Ministry of Defense announced this on Wednesday. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO has wanted to better defend the border in Eastern Europe. That is why new combat units will be established in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. The Netherlands is contributing two hundred men to the unit in Cincu, in the center of Romania. They leave this summer and stay there for a year.
It is an airmobile unit that will become part of a French-led combat unit of about nine hundred soldiers. In addition, the Netherlands will probably send 85 soldiers next month to help build the military camp in Cincu. That is expected to take about six months.
The cabinet previously announced that it was looking at participation in Romania. Minister Ollongren (Defence) and Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) have now made the decision. The Netherlands is currently also participating in a NATO mission in Lithuania. About 250 soldiers are stationed there.
The first Dutch soldiers have already visited the area in Romania for a reconnaissance mission. This looked at ‘the local circumstances, the agreements and the division of tasks with France and Romania’, the Ministry of Defense reports.