DutchNews.nl,
Thursday 12 June 2014
Soldiers of
the Airborne Brigade
on exercise. (NOS/ANP)
|
It is the
first time a Dutch and a German military unit have been combined, bringing the
Dutch soldiers under the command of a German major-general.
Dutch
defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and her German counterpart Ursula
von der Leyen will attend the integration ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the
headquarters of the German division in Stadtallendorf.
Rapid
'The
objective is for the Netherlands and Germany to have a well-integrated unit by
2018 that can be rapidly deployed anywhere in the world, as long as both countries
agree,' Hennis told the media.
'It is a
unique step and an important milestone in German-Dutch defence cooperation,'
she said.
EU army
According
to defence expert Rob de Wijk of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, it is
the first step towards a European army. 'It goes much further than the
cooperation we have seen so far,' he told the Volkskrant.
The new
brigade will consist of 8,000 German soldiers and 2,000 Dutch soldiers. The
Dutch brigade will remain at its bases in Schaarsbergen and Assen.
Ine Eriksen Søreide (Norway), Karin Enström (Sweden),
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert
(Netherlands) and Ursula von der Leyen (Germany).
Photograph: Twitter
|
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