During his latest visit to the White House, Rutte agreed to deliver Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
In doing so, he will be joining forces with the US and Germany in supplying Ukraine’s war effort with an air defence system.
According to the NOS, Rutte dubbed this alliance “crucial at this stage of the war”, as Russia’s success in Ukraine would pose a major security risk to the Netherlands.
The Netherlands will aid Ukraine’s air defence
Rutte and Deputy Prime Minister Wopke Hoekstra posed supporting Ukraine with a better air defence system, in the form of Patriot missiles.
These Patriot missiles are said to have a range of 60 kilometres. They are also capable of taking down enemy helicopters and missiles up to 20 kilometres in the air.
As such, they make a powerful addition to any military’s firepower.
The US is opposed to the NL selling chip machines to China
During their talks, Biden also addressed Dutch manufacturer ASML selling chip machines to China.
The US is not keen on China having access to such high-tech machinery. During the White House talks, Biden was not at all shy about making the Netherlands aware of this fact.
READ MORE | Here’s how you can help Ukraine from the Netherlands [UPDATED]
However, China is one of ASML’s biggest customers and sales easily run into the billions. This leads to considerable restraint on the Dutch side about cutting ties.
Although Rutte did not go into detail about what he and Biden discussed on the subject, he dubbed it “intensive”. Despite this, he stressed that the supply of chips would not be compromised.
What do you think of the Netherlands’ decision to supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
It’s a bad decision! The US has been making wars in other ones’ territories! This is not a Dutch war! There should be peace talks and measurements, to end this war and not to satisfy Mr Curresnky ego!
Hello Lena, thanks for sharing with us your willingness to trade the lives of Ukrainians.
russia has been losing this war for almost a year already, and there is no place for peace talks of for measuring something until every last soldier of so called russian federation leaves the territory of Ukraine. And when it happens, the talks would be about return of captured and kidnapped people, reparations, future safety of Ukraine and Europe and inevitable responsibility of everyone involved into this war of aggression, in all crimes committed and in attempts to give it any justification.