Earlier, the Netherlands, together with Germany, blocked the supply of weapons to Ukraine through NATO.Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Gukstra allowed the supply of weapons to Ukraine / photo ua. depositphotos.com

The Government of the Netherlands is open to military assistance to Ukraine in the matter of supplying defensive weapons .

This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Wopke Hoekstra in the House of Representatives (lower house of parliament), writes AD.nl. The coalition in this chamber also does not exclude the supply of defensive weapons.

According to the Foreign Minister, a request from NATO is needed to provide weapons, but so far there has not been one.

“If there is a request through NATO, we will consider it with understanding,” Hoekstra said.

He also recalled that earlier such a request was blocked by Germany with the support of the Netherlands due to fears of escalation, but now the situation has changed.

“At that time the decision was made because it could potentially lead to an escalation … The context changes almost every day,” Hoekstra explained.

Even if the request is made directly to the Netherlands for the supply of weapons, the Foreign Minister wants to consider it. “The criteria for evaluating the export of weapons are really valid, we will check them,” Gukstra said and added that participation in a European training mission is also not ruled out.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Germany and the Netherlands were among the EU countries that refuse to provide Ukraine with weapons to defend against Russian aggression.

In particular, on December 14, the media reported that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally blocked the sale of weapons to Ukraine through the NATO support and supply agency. In addition, it was reported that this possibility was also blocked by the Netherlands.

On December 30, the new German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock announced that she did not support the supply of arms to Ukraine . In her opinion, “further military escalation will not bring Ukraine greater security.”

On January 16, Andriy Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, once again called on Berlin to provide Ukraine with weapons . According to the Ukrainian diplomat, the reluctance of the new German government to supply weapons is “very upsetting” against the backdrop of the buildup of Russian forces on the border with Ukraine. “Now the moment of truth has come – who is a true friend,” Melnik emphasized.

On January 17, in Kiev, the head of the German Foreign Ministry stated that Germany’s position on the issue of supplying weapons to Ukraine remains unchanged .

On January 18, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed that the German government does not plan to supply weapons to Ukraine , but will try to diplomatically divert the possibility of the Russian Federation invading Ukraine.

(C)UNIAN 2022