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Ministry of Defence (Netherlands)

Government ministry of the Netherlands

Field	Value
agency_name	Ministry of Defence
type	Department
nativename	Ministerie van Defensie
logo	Royal coat of arms of the Netherlands.svg
logo_width	150px
logo_caption	Coat of arms of the Netherlands
seal	Logo ministerie van defensie.svg
seal_caption	Logo of the Ministry of Defence
picture	Entree Kalvermarkt 32, Den Haag.jpg
picture_width	170px
picture_caption	Ministry of Defence
formed
jurisdiction	Kingdom of the Netherlands
headquarters	Plein 4, The Hague, Netherlands
employees	41,380 active duty
6,763 reserve forces
3,000 paramilitary
21,674 civilian staff
budget	€21,4 billion (2024)
minister1_name	Ruben Brekelmans
minister1_pfo	Minister of Defence
deputyminister1_name	Gijs Tuinman
deputyminister1_pfo	State Secretary for Defence
chief1_name	Maarten Schurink
chief1_position	Secretary-General
chief2_name	General Onno Eichelsheim
chief2_position	Chief of the Defence
website	https://www.defensie.nl

6,763 reserve forces 3,000 paramilitary 21,674 civilian staff

The Ministry of Defence (; MinDef) is the Dutch ministry responsible for the armed forces of the Netherlands and veterans' affairs. The ministry was created in 1813 as the Ministry of War and in 1928 was combined with the Ministry of the Navy. After World War II the ministries were separated again, in this period the Minister of War and Minister of the Navy were often the same person and the state secretary for the Navy was responsible for daily affairs of the Royal Netherlands Navy. In 1959 the ministries were merged once again. The ministry is headed by the Minister of Defence, currently Ruben Brekelmans, assisted by the Chief of the Defence, Onno Eichelsheim.

Responsibilities

The ministry is responsible for:

protecting the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (which includes the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba) and her allies;
protecting and enhancing the international legal system and stability;
supporting civil authorities in maintaining order, in case of emergencies and in giving humanitarian aid, both national and international.

Organization

The ministry consists of the Minister (Ruben Brekelmans) and the State Secretary of Defence (Gijs Tuinman), the so-called Central Staff, the Netherlands Armed Forces and two supporting organisations.

The Central Staff of the ministry is led by the Secretary-General, the highest civil servant. The most important elements of the Central Staff are:

several directorates for policy, personnel, materiel and finance
the Defence Staff
the Defence Audit Service
the Security Authority
the Military Intelligence and Security Service
the Military Aviation Authority

The highest military official is the Chief of Defence (). He is a four-star general or admiral and controls the branches of the armed forces, which are organized in three operational commands:

the Royal Netherlands Navy Command;
the Royal Netherlands Army Command;
the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force Command. The fourth branch of service, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, is a gendarmerie force that falls directly under the Secretary-General.

The armed forces are supported by two civil organizations that reside under the Ministry of Defence:

a Support Command (); and
the Materiel and IT Command ().

The ministry employs around 70,000 civil and military personnel.

References

{{in lang. nl [https://www.defensie.nl/onderwerpen/overdefensie/het-verhaal-van-defensie/aantallen-personeel Aantallen personeel], Defensie, September 1, 2023
{{in lang. nl [https://www.defensie.nl/onderwerpen/overdefensie/het-verhaal-van-defensie/financien Financiën], defensie.nl
Defensie, Ministerie van. (2017-10-26). "Minister of Defence - Central Staff - Defensie.nl".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

defence-ministries government-ministries-of-the-netherlands military-of-the-netherlands government-ministries-established-in-1813 veterans'-affairs-ministries nato-defence-ministries

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