NATO member states implement classified “resilience objectives”
22 January 2025
Governments of NATO member states implement classified 'NATO resilience objectives'. Dutch minister of Public Health Fleur Agema spillt the beans. She tried to do some damage control by saying: “The objectives are public”, but NATO confirmed: “They are classified.” MP Ralf Dekker of the Forum for Democracy believes that this undermines the supervisory role of the House of Representatives and the sovereignty of the Netherlands.
At the NATO summit in Vilnius, on 11 July, 2023, heads of state and government agreed “Alliance Resilience Objectives”. A communiqué issued by the participants reads: “We build on the 2021 Strengthened Resilience Commitment. The Resilience Objectives will strengthen NATO and Allied preparedness against strategic shocks and disruptions. They will boost our national and collective ability to ensure continuity of government and of essential services to our populations, and enable civil support to military operations, in peace, crisis and conflict. Allies will use these objectives to guide the development of their national goals and implementation plans, consistent with their respective national risk profile. We will also work towards identifying and mitigating strategic vulnerabilities and dependencies, including with respect to our critical infrastructure, supply chains and health systems. Allies should also promote societal resilience.”
On 24 october 2024, during a debate in Dutch Parliament about “pandemic prepardness”, Minister of Public Health, Floor Agema, said: “We must be prepared for any disaster that comes our way. Hybrid threats, military threats, natural disasters or a new pandemic. All these threats require strengthening the resilience of our healthcare.” She then revealed that all Dutch government policy that touched on “resilience” was bound by “NATO obligations” and that the implementation of these obligations was currently coordinated by Dutch security service NCTV. She and her fellow cabinet members had been briefed about the obligations in July 2024 by officials of the ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs.
Earlier, in September 2024, Dutch MP’s had pressed Agema to donate mpox-vaccins to African countries that were suffering from a mpox outbreak. Agema resisted saying: “I want to be careful and not fall below the recommended safe stock of 100,000 smallpox vaccines. This number relates to preparedness when it comes to a reintroduction, as is now the case, but also to preparedness when it comes to the threat of spread by malicious persons.” She then mentioned the war in Ukraine and said that “the agressor, Russia” was in possession of a mpox virus. Was it NATO that had recommended The Netherlands not to fall below 100,000 smallpox vaccines? Nobody in Parliament asked, because at that time nobody realized that Agema dealt with NATO obligations.
In November 2024 MP Pepijn van Houwelingen of opposition party Forum for Democracy asked Agema about the obligations and the briefing. This month Agema answered that she was not allowed to share any information about the briefing. Although in Parliament she had repeatedly talked about “NATO obligations” she now said that the resilience objectives were “not legally binding”. During an interview on Dutch national tv, last week, Agema stated that, although the briefing was classified, there was nothing secretive about the NATO resilience objectives. “You can simply look them up on the internet,” she told reporter Jonathan Krispijn of broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland. “The objectives are public.” However, the Vilnius communiqué only discusses the resilience objectives in general terms. There is no document on the NATO website that makes it clear what the heads of state and government signed up for. When asked by yours truly, NATO's press office stated that the resilience goals are “classified”. They are secret. NATO cannot and may not say anything about them, and neither can the governments of the NATO member states.
Last week, MP Ralf Dekker of Forum for Democracy requested a debate on the Dutch NATO obligations. Not a single party in the House of Representatives supported the request. This week he made a new attempt. “The entire cabinet receives secret, mandatory instructions from NATO regarding the resilience aspects of their policy,” he said. “This means that both the supervisory role of the House of Representatives and the sovereignty of the Netherlands are being affected. I would like to have a debate on this with the Prime Minister and perhaps also with Minister Agema, who raised this issue in the House." Again, there was no support from other parties in the House for a debate.
Salient detail: Mark Rutte is one of the signatories of the Vilnius 2023 resilience objectives. At that time he was prime minister of The Netherlands. In 2024 he became secretary general of NATO. The current Dutch prime minister is Dick Schoof. Before he accepted this position he was head of the NCTV, which now coordinates the implementation of the NATO resilience objectives in The Netherlands.
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