The Minister of Defense of the Netherlands Ruben Brekelmans announced the provision of a new aid package to Ukraine in the amount of 200 million euros. Funds will be directed to anti-drone systems. According to the minister, Russia’s night attack on Ukraine on October 10 once again confirmed the need to strengthen protection against drones.
“We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Minister of Defense regarding industrial cooperation. This is part of the “Let’s build with Ukraine” initiative, which aims to ensure that both Dutch companies can invest in Ukraine, and vice versa, Ukrainian companies can come to the Netherlands, create joint ventures and increase joint production, said Ruben Brekelmans.
He clarified that the Netherlands is opening a coordination cluster in Kyiv for its technology companies that plan to enter the Ukrainian market. Ukraine and the Netherlands are also working on the creation of joint enterprises for the production of weapons, but the details have not yet been disclosed, the minister noted.
“We are creating joint ventures, one of which will probably be announced soon. The goal is to create mutually beneficial situations, because there is a lot of knowledge and experience in Ukraine, because the companies are very innovative, closely cooperate with the military, and fight intensively every day. But we in the Netherlands also have some technological expertise that can be used to increase the value of these products, and we also have the industrial capacity to scale up production. We learned in Ukraine how to combine innovation and industrialization, and we can help both the Ukrainian military and the Dutch army in this, Ruben Brekelmans noted.
