Armed Forces
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In the constitution it is declared that the Kingdom has armed forces. Article 97 states that there are armed forces to defend and protect the interests of the Kingdom as well as to maintain and promote the international rule of law. Subarticle 2 determines that the government has supreme authority over the armed forces. While the government is the supreme commander of the armed forces, the defence minister has political responsibility and the Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff has military leadership. The armed forces are divided into Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, Royal Netherlands Army, Royal Netherlands Navy and Royal Netherlands Air Force. The Ministry of Defence employs about 70.000 personnel of which about 45.000 is military and the remainder civilian. |
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