Bos disappointed at support from NATO 03/12/2007 00:00

3 December 2007

THE HAGUE – Deputy prime minister and Labour PvdA leader Wouter Bos says it is "really unacceptable" that NATO allies are not willing to assist the Dutch more in Uruzgan. There is no question that the Dutch will be unable to send troops to the Afghan province past 2010.

"As a small country we have our limits, we cannot continue this indefinitely, so at the end of 2010 we will really leave, regardless of the circumstances at the time," Bos wrote on the PvdA website this weekend.

The cabinet decision from last Friday leaves the possibility open that a limited number of soldiers may stay on in Uruzgan longer. In a letter to Parliament the cabinet wrote that the Netherlands will end "its leading military responsibility" in 2010, "come what may." This does not rule out a modest presence in the years following however.

Opposition party Liberal VVD wants confirmation in writing from NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that the Netherlands' mission will definitively be over in 2010.

The VVD has doubts about the financial contributions from new partner countries like France and the Czech Republic (EUR 15 to 20 million, according to the cabinet) and about the estimated costs (EUR 270 million a year).

The cabinet is hoping for the VVD's support for extending the mission, because otherwise the entire opposition will be against it.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Subject: Dutch news