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Netherlands is the brainchild behind €1 billion NATO fund aimed at Russia.
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
NATO is launching a new investment fund worth €1 billion, which is expected to be officially activated at NATO’s annual summit in July. The fund aims to militarize the civil sector by using the knowledge and skills of manufacturers, scientific institutions, and start-ups to develop technology with military and defence applications.
The fund, described by NATO as the “world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund”, will invest €1 billion into developing dual-use (civilian and military) emerging and disruptive technologies over a 15-year time frame. However, it demonstrates that NATO wants to permanently employ the European economy to the Russian border so they can collectively focus on the Ukrainian crisis.
It will also serve as preparation for any future war against Russia, something that is at great risk of eventuating considering Western efforts to deter Moscow from its special military operation in Ukraine have failed.
In the Ukrainian crisis, the material needs of the Ukrainian military are evident, and especially in preparation for any potential scenario of using NATO forces against Russia. This primarily refers to artillery, ammunition, rockets, bombs, air defence systems and drones. Due to these shortages, projects like this are being developed under the auspices of the NATO pact and are now becoming an investment fund for the economies of member states, depending on the ability of those countries to produce equipment needed for combat needs.
NATO approaches this project by effectively purchasing knowledge and engaging civil institutions, but also by opening various civil-military programs and projects. In addition, there are also investments in the so-called information war, which is part of the intelligence-reconnaissance activity, which is very important for modern warfare.
One NATO official told EURACTIV that the Alliance is looking to have a “competitive edge over strategic competitors”, an obvious reference to Russia.
The Netherlands already announced that it will house the fund. The country also announced that it will facilitate innovative startup companies by helping them find capital.
“We expect that housing this fund in the Netherlands will make it easier for innovative Dutch startups to find their way to capital, stimulating solutions for both societal and military problems,” the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement.
For this reason, the specific technologies invested will include artificial intelligence, big-data processing, biotechnology and human enhancement, novel materials, quantum-enabled technologies as well as propulsion and space. Although the headquarters will likely be in Amsterdam, regional offices will also be established “across the Alliance […] given the wide geographic remit of the Fund”, according to a NATO press release.
It is recalled that the new fund was first announced last year, meaning that the latest announcement made by the Dutch government is a demonstration of a laid-out plan by NATO to bring European civilian structures to operate as if it were in a war time economic climate. This could suggest that NATO is preparing Europe for a much larger conflict with Russia.
However, these provocative actions by the Dutch government comes as the country has been gripped by a wave of strikes in the public and private sectors since the beginning of 2023, something unseen in such a manner for many years. Every week since January, Dutch workers have protested for better wages and living conditions.
On March 16, around 200,000 healthcare workers at 64 Dutch hospitals were on strike for a day, including at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam, a leading facility for treating cancer patients. Doctors and healthcare workers in 48 departments of the facility went on strike for the first time ever.
Although the Dutch economy will not shrink this year, its growth will slow down, according to ABN Amro. The bank expects the economy to grow 1.2% this year and 1.3% in 2024, a miniscule amount compared to the 4% growth the Dutch economy enjoyed in the previous years. Persistent inflation will ensure that growth will remain low this year, with ABN Amro expecting consumer prices to rise by 4.4% this year and 4% in 2024.
The higher interest rates, keeping in mind the central banks are trying to curb inflation, also slow the Dutch economy. It costs more to borrow money, which has repercussions for the housing market and investments, ABN Amro said.
Yet, with the Netherlands having no security issues to contend with given its geography, it is voluntarily deepening its involvement in NATO structures aimed against Russia, and all at a time when citizens are protesting weekly and suffering from the Western-wide economic crisis.
The author dont understand Westren Econimics. We can produce anything and by choise.
Our systems are outsourcing almot anything to private companies from toilet papers based on liras and rubles to tanks with own coffemakikers.
So thats not civile. Its a best try to produce whats being asked for to best to the price.
Here You still are in the old days by Gamel Abded Egyption, where miliary equipment only is produced by the state.
The state order/ask/demand and change their/our budget.
The Ahmed/Abbed also dont understand we are in a very high level for GDP and wellfare. By that many others should understand a % or 2 more hardly makes any diffrence.
But shame of us. USA kindly has paid so much even we have the same level in GDP as them. So I see forward to We in Western Europe pay a little more for Our own safety.
Only in the Russian version we are starving and freezing as well. Best to the price is not Russia anymore. We oay a little extra, we decline a little and improve in a flexible way as we are usewd to.
Thats what kapitalisme can. It has its downs too. None shoukd forget that. But it makes sense to ompare. If we see anything better we will copy and implement it in own versions.
Fx we take better care of Our many prolatars then Russians and Karls Marxs leftovers. They acnt even copy China.
Leanr tu write in inglish tu stupid moron (J.Holm to himself, early monday mornig)
Finally stability is a must. You as citicen, company or governess should rely in stability or try to make it.
And we do try and calibrate in Netherland as well.
Strikes mainly are legals tools in Our countries. Byt that we have feww unlegal strikes. We negosiate instead. Here France has big problems in their own structures for solving problems.
Your words are laced with danish faggotry, like a doughnut with jewish jizz on it.
>>> with the Netherlands having no security issues to contend with given its geography
Nothing that couldn’t be fixed by conducting bogus lawsuits against Russia, issuing arrest warrants against the Russian President and, should that fail, arresting a few Americans and Israelis on war crime charges.
Though in the latter case, it is not clear whether NATO would be doing the attacking or the defending …
Our dykes make the Dutch vulnerable.. But we don’t know…
Russians don’t need to worry if electronics are made by Philips. :)
NATO’S finished. It’ll sink with the US
A billion in those terms isn’t really a big deal. I thoughtthey were to transform civilian infrastructure, such are civilian houses to their missile launchers. This is all De Ja Vu.
NATO plans on victory in ukraine. oops.
Yes the nafo group wants to invest in ANYTHING except Peaceful resolution of conflicts. It’s because their leadership are satanist fm eugenicsists who profit from human suffering and death. And they dare not betray their leader the evil one himself.
Bangladesh of the North aka CheeZytown or the Dutch swamp has always had an overblown sense of its own importance. That some of the most racist scum on the planet are cheeZheads comes as no surprise . However, if they imagine that Natostan aka the EUSSR will survive the destruction of their naZi project in rump Ukraine it only proves how out of touch with reality these clowns are. Meanwhile the farmers are kicking Rutte’s well USed juice ass from the polders and the so called ICC has become a bad joke.
So what? The genocidal war of the rashists in Ukraine shows that one needs to be prepared to destroy the rashist shithole state…they’re begging for their own Japanese 1945…