Following the recent NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., the Dutch Ambassador to NATO visited Arizona to meet with defense industrial companies and tour Luke Air Force Base.
Thjis van der Plas told KJZZ News that with the growing production of semiconductors moving to the Valley, the Ukraine war is directly relevant to Arizonans in particular.
“Arizona has a huge defense industrial base and that industrial base will benefit from the money that Congress reserves for Ukraine because most of that money is spent in the United States,” said Van der Plas.
Ukraine is on what he called an "irreversible path" to NATO membership, but van der Plas said the timing has to be right. Part of that will mean reducing reliance on so-called adversarial regimes for resources, like semiconductors.
“We're moving production of semiconductors back to Europe and to the United States,” he said. “Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, calls it de-risking. You need to de-risk your trade relations.”
Van der Plas said a more independent supply chain is a crucial part of this strategy’s success, and so is America’s continued support of Ukraine’s war effort.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, its leaders have asked Western allies to supply F-16 fighter jets. Last year, pilots arrived in Arizona to begin special training with plans for other NATO allies to continue further schooling.
Van der Plas said those plans are moving along.
“We are phasing out 36 F-16s by the end of this year,” he said. “24 of those F-16s will go directly to Ukraine, 12 will go to Romania, where we are setting up a training center to train F-16 pilots from Ukraine.”
Even when training ends in Arizona, he said that increasing semiconductor production will extend its relevance in the Ukraine war.
The upcoming presidential election is expected to decide how much support continues to come from the U.S., but Van der Plas said his office will work with whoever the American people choose.
“We need to make sure that this relationship continues to thrive even after the election,” he said. “There will be new people in Congress, and they will have to decide on the continued support for Ukraine and other international commitments.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to clarify the title of Thjis van der Plas, Dutch ambassador to NATO.
