P.M. Lubbers, who transformed The Netherlands into a European leading belt tightener, is convinced that the deployment of the missiles is necessary, though a decision is yet to be made.

The crunch and the cruise

Britain’s no-nonsense Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stopped by The Hague not long ago to call on her Dutch counterpart, Ruud Lubbers. As conversation turned to their mutual attempts to impose economic austerity, the Dutch Christian Democratic leader outlined his bold program of budgetary cutbacks. Thatcher…

Bush toured Europe hoping to reassure allies. Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers proclaimed that he would judge progress at the INF talks by “only one criterion: the zero option.”

Hoping to reassure allies, Bush tours Europe and Shultz visits Asia

Vice President George Bush was in West Berlin, the Communist-encircled outpost where American leaders often enjoy ovations. In the mirrored ballroom of the Inter-Continental Hotel, his delivery was crisp, almost inspirational, as he told some 650 politicians, businessmen and…

United Nations Security Council decided to call on U.N. member states to quit Jerusalem as the site of their embassies. The most reluctant decision to move was made by The Netherlands.

The diplomatic corps packs up to move to Tel Aviv

Ever since Israel was founded in 1948, one of the eccentricities of diplomatic life in the country has been the existence of two separate embassy communities. By far the larger one, in Tel Aviv, did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s…

Opposition socialist parties managed to put the Dutch Parliament as opposing the missile plan. Premier Van Agt dashed off to Washington, Rome, London & Bonn in search of a compromise.

The allies vote to strengthen Europe’s strike force with new missiles

A few miles south of the Brussels headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization lies the field of Waterloo. The famous battle that took place there in 1815 was, as the victorious Duke of Wellington said afterward, “a damned…

The Netherlands, which has been the most reluctant to endorse deployment of nuclear weapons. There is pacifist and left-wing opposition to arms modernization measures.

Meting Moscow’s Threat

Western Europe prepares to counter the Soviet juggernaut

The unavoidable geopolitical fact of life for Western Europe over the past quarter-century has been the threat from the East. The Soviet Union and its satellite states have assembled one of the most powerful military juggernauts in world…

In The Netherlands, where Moscow has set up a computer center, the Dutch government last year expelled the Soviet director on espionage charges.

The Soviet Union likes to boast that it is the land of the future. Yet in the one technology most essential for industrial and scientific progress, the country is far behind. Western experts believe Soviet computer development trails the U.S.’s by three to ten years, depending on the segment of…

Kissinger tried to invited himself to the NL. The Dutch tried diplomatically to decline the honor. Eventually they quickly agreed to serve as hosts.

Henry Kissinger planned his latest global foray with the care of a man who might not soon be making another. He had already decided that unless a crisis should intervene (over SALT or southern Africa, for instance), he would not be traveling outside the U.S. again until after the November…

The most enthusiastic advocates of Surinam’s independence have been the Dutch. They are rapidly trying to unload the vestiges of its old colonial empire, an anachronistic embarrassment.

After four days of debate that often lasted until dawn, the parliament of the world’s newest, and 156th, sovereign state unanimously approved a constitution. The staid, protocol-conscious assembly in Surinam’s capital of Paramaribo erupted in cheers. Outside, a crowd waiting for the vote roared its approval and set off celebratory…

Defense Ministers of the NATO-consortium announced jointly that the best and least expensive contender was the F16. Mirage-maker Dassault offered a discount to the Netherlands.

When four European NATO countries formed a consortium last year to buy 350 new lightweight fighter planes, a stiff competition ensued for what was quickly dubbed the “arms contract of the century.” Last week the Defense Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway announced jointly that the best and…

Three Japanese Red Army commondos seized eleven hostages at the French embassy in The Hague. They left the Netherlands in a Boeing 747. Their whereabouts remain a mystery.

The pattern was all too familiar. Three men, armed with pistols and a grenade, strode into the French embassy in The Hague just before closing time and occupied the fourth floor of the modern concrete and glass building. Seizing eleven hostages, including French Ambassador Count Jacques Senard and several business…

Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway—four NATO nations acting as a consortium—will buy more than 350 new jet fighters to replace warplanes bought in the 1960s.

Europeans call it the arms deal of the century—and they may well be right. Some time this year, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway—four NATO nations acting as a consortium —will buy more than 350 new jet fighters to replace warplanes bought in the 1960s. France and the…

The Dutch are puzzled by the Arabs’ official retention of the embargo. The Dutch in fact signed a statement supporting United Nations Resolution 242, which calls for a pullback.

In Rotterdam’s Europoort, oil business goes on as usual. Giant tankers glide across the busy harbor to docks where workmen connect the ships to shiny umbilical pipes that drain their heavy cargoes of crude. Near by, five gigantic refineries crank out prodigious quantities of fuel for the thirsty North European…

The Netherlands have abandoned gasoline rationing. Recently Rotterdam was so jammed with tankers that some had to be sent to Antwerp in Belgium to unload.

While gasoline lines are growing longer and local rationing plans are proliferating in the U.S., fears of a disastrous scarcity of oil are fading rapidly in most of the rest of the world. To many Americans, that contrast must suggest the suspicion that the energy crisis is something that is…

The Dutch are rationing at least partly out of embarrassment because of previously instituted conservation measures that were less stringent than those of their unembargoed neighbors.

The gloom that has enveloped the industrialized West since the Arabs unsheathed their oil weapon in October lightened last week. Arab nations announced an easing of their production cutbacks—and around the world, there was growing suspicion that they never did slash oil output as much as they had…

The embargo is being circumvented by the major multinational oil companies, with at least the knowledge if not the active cooperation of European governments.

Clearly, something mysterious was afoot. While Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, wandered about Europe promising a continued flow of oil to the Arabs’ “friends” and privation to enemies, almost the opposite seemed to be happening. In Britain, Germany, Italy and other nations classified by the Arabs as friendly…