A look at the Defence news 1 - 7 May
Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine thanked Dutch Defence personnel during a visit to the Netherlands.
President Zelenskyy thanks Defence personnel
At a special gathering in Soesterberg, attended by around 200 military and civilian Defence personnel, Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for their efforts in supporting the armed forces of his country.
Netherlands State Secretary discusses military service with Swedish counterpart
In Sweden, compulsory attendance regarding military service is in force, in addition to conscription. However, the country manages to fill its armed forces almost entirely with volunteers. Each year, over 6,000 Swedes opt for voluntary military service, with 25% of them being women. The Netherlands State Secretary for Defence Christophe van der Maat is interested to know how the Swedes manage to achieve this, and therefore visited his Swedish counterpart Peter Sandwall in Stockholm last week to learn more about their approach.
NATO trains rapidly deployable spearhead force
NATO is currently training part of its spearhead force, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. This is the fast-moving vanguard of the NATO Response Force. Around 2,200 military personnel are taking part in the training exercise, that goes under the name of Exercise Noble Jump. Approximately 500 of these are Dutch military personnel. The training exercise is being conducted on the Italian island of Sardinia.