Dutch foreign minister says Netherlands may transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine
F-16 (Photo:Tom Evensen/www.flickr.com)
The Netherlands will consider transferring F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if Kyiv requests it, Dutch television news service RTL Nieuws quoted the country’s Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra as saying on Jan. 19.
According to the diplomat, he is considering such a possibility with an “open mind.”
The minister added there is no taboo on the supply of conventional equipment either.
Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on Jan. 19 that the Netherlands is ready to pay for the delivery of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of a wider coalition effort to equip Kyiv’s armed forces with modern heavy weapons.
According to the minister, the Netherlands had previously paid for Soviet T-72 tanks to be sent to Kyiv from the Czech Republic and is ready to do the same with Leopard tanks.
On Nov. 29, 2022, James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, said NATO leaders were again considering the idea of providing Ukraine with MiG-29 and U.S. F-16 fighter jets.
He said that such an idea had been rejected in the early days of the war.
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