ands

Military branches:

Royal Netherlands Army, Royal Netherlands Navy (includes Naval Air
Service and Marine Corps), Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke
Luchtmacht, KLu), Royal Military Police (2008)

Military service age and obligation:

20 years of age for an all-volunteer force (2004)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 3,950,825
females age 16-49: 3,850,800 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 3,233,773
females age 16-49: 3,150,790 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 105,735
female: 100,747 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

1.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues
Netherlands

Disputes - international:

none

Illicit drugs:

major European producer of synthetic drugs, including ecstasy, and
cannabis cultivator; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and
hashish entering Europe; major source of US-bound ecstasy; large
financial sector vulnerable to money laundering; significant
consumer of ecstasy

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Netherlands Antilles

Introduction
Netherlands Antilles

Background:

Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade, the island of Curacao
was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity
(and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th
century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly
discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of Saint Martin is
shared with France; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten and
is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern portion, called
Saint Martin, is an overseas collectivity of France.

Geography
Netherlands Antilles

Location:

Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean Sea - composed of five
islands, Curacao and Bonaire located off the coast of Venezuela, and
Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius lie east of the US Virgin
Islands

Geographic coordinates:

Bonaire: 12 12 N, 68 15 W
Curacao: 12 10 N, 69 00 W
Saba: 17 38 N, 63 14 W
Sint Eustatius: 17 30 N, 62 58 W
Sint Maarten: 18 04 N, 63 04 W

Map references:

Central America and the Caribbean

Area:

total: 960 sq km
land: 960 sq km
water: 0 sq km
note: includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint
Maarten (Dutch part of the i