Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 1061: Joint military training in the Andaman Sea that stung Britain’s nerves

“On the eve of the Prime Ministers’ Summit of Germany, Austria and Britain, the Netherlands and Siam went to the Andaman Sea in the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean to patrol!”

On January 1882, 1, the navies of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam conducted maritime exercises in the southern Andaman Sea in the northern Indian Ocean.

It is close to the British Malayan peninsula in the west, Myanmar in the west, Bangladesh in the south, and Sri Lanka in the east.

The Times of London cited data compiled by the Dutch Military Studies Center at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The Netherlands and Siam conducted a total of 13 major joint exercises last year.

It accounts for a quarter of the total joint exercises between the Netherlands and foreign militaries, and is the most important patrol practice between the two countries in more than 20 years.

However, the British Governor-General of India did not indicate that Dutch and Siamese patrols in the Andaman Sea were directly provocative.

And the exact location of the number of warships patrolling jointly by the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam was not stated.

The Financial Times quoted an English senator who revealed that the fleet of this warship consisted of 20 ships.

In response, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said that warships of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam carried out exercises in the Andaman Sea, which involved joint interception of enemy warships and the elimination of supply lifelines for rival warships.

In addition, the navies of the two countries alternately use each other's warships, etc., and the two countries jointly conduct anti-submarine exercises to discover targets and destroy them.

Many people in the UK believe that this exercise by the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam is targeted, and the target is still the UK.

Mitte, president of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, believes that the Netherlands still intended to play a certain role in mediation in the Mexican War.

However, as the powerful new cabinet of Jules Danetang comes to power, although the Dutch government will increase its assistance to the Mexican side in the Mexican War, it is not in line with the foreign policy of the new Dutch government to play the role of mediation.

Prior to this, in mid-October last year, the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam continued to conduct sea patrols in the eastern Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. At that time, five warships entered the Bay of Bengal, which was ruled by the British and claimed to be an inland sea.

After that, the five warships went west and arrived in eastern Sri Lanka, where they conducted a three-day northern exercise around Sri Lanka, which was regarded as targeting the United Kingdom.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense also added at the time that since the joint patrol, the two countries have carried out patrol missions in the northern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, including the Bay of Bangkok and the Bay of Bengal.

Duke, a professor at the Institute of International Affairs and Strategy at the University of Cambridge, said in an interview with the Daily News,
Britain, Germany, and Austria will hold a prime ministerial-level summit in Berlin on January 1. At that time, Britain will be persuaded to join Austria-Hungary in the Mexican War. This action by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam will send a strong political signal to Britain.

According to reports, the Royal Siam Embassy in the UK did not respond to requests for comment on the exercise.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Siam emphasized that the joint patrol was not deliberately targeting the UK.

The Netherlands and the UK have already severed diplomatic relations for five years, so there is no need for the Netherlands to respond to the British media.

However, the Berliner Zeitung has a different view on this. It quoted Sadler, a senior researcher at the British think tank Heritage Foundation and retired naval colonel, to analyze that the UK and the Netherlands have recently been fighting each other over the sovereignty of Malacca.The two countries are also competitors in arms.

Coupled with the war between Austria-Hungary and Mexico and the tense situation around the Americas, this fleet is currently approaching Srikanth in the Andaman Sea for the second time after last year. This is a highly provocative move. The British government should condemn the actions of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam. And countermeasures should be taken.

The Kingdom of Siam said it was not targeting other countries.

In response, the British Ministry of Defense publicly expressed distrust of the lies told by the Kingdom of Siam.

The British Ministry of Defense directly accused, "The Netherlands and Siam are looking for new types of warships to form a joint campaign command.

Joint planning, joint deployment, joint command, joint operations, joint support, etc., are all testing the capabilities of the two countries and two militaries for integrated cooperative operations in the open ocean. "

"The spokesperson of the British Governor-General of India confirmed the joint naval patrols of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam in the North Indian Ocean, but believed that the Netherlands and the Kingdom had not invaded British colonial waters and there was no need to be nervous. It did not pose a current threat. He mentioned that the British military was in Operations were conducted at sea to ensure the defense of the British homeland and colonies.”

However, the spokesperson of the Governor-General's Office in India said on behalf of the Governor-General that as the Mexican War continued, the Netherlands had already tried its best to strengthen its defense of the Thirteen Latin American Group, and now it was using excuses one after another to fight against Britain and its allies.Very targeted.

Melbourne's current practice of cruising the Indian Ocean with the Kingdom of Siam is the Netherlands' way of putting pressure on Britain.

Germany and Austria-Hungary also believe that the actions of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam are extremely provocative and should be condemned.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's "Crown" newspaper quoted British Ministry of Defense officials as revealing that Dutch and Siamese warships sailed into the Andaman Sea and even the coastal waters of British Burma, but did not enter British Burma, and then conducted provocative drills.

The British dispatched three warships to follow them and monitor them at all times. British reconnaissance ships were also on a mission to track Dutch and Siamese warships.

Many people have analyzed that since 1876, the UK and the Netherlands have been locked in a long-term strategic competition over the sovereignty of the Malacca Strait, joined the Chilean War, and started a global turf war. The UK is trying its best to expand eastward into the Far East, while the Netherlands is rapidly moving eastward into the Americas.

The current practices of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam obviously break this rule. The Netherlands is about to open a second strategic battlefield. The Netherlands has begun to march towards the Indochina Peninsula, threatening Britain's large areas in the Far East, such as Malaya, Burma, Bangladesh, Indian sub-peninsula, Sri Lanka, etc.

Britain is facing strategic pressure from the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Siam, which should make London react and even stimulate Britain's willingness to take the initiative to have closer and natural interactions with Germany and Austria.

The Netherlands not only has frequent military interactions with the Kingdom of Siam, but British newspapers also quoted that nine Dutch and Spanish warships conducted joint patrols near the Cape of Good Hope in British South Africa the week before, and the United Kingdom dispatched up to four warships for surveillance.

At the same time, Venezuela and Colombia, the Netherlands' maritime allies half a month ago, launched an anti-landing war on the Caribbean coast, with more than 2000 people from the three parties dispatched.

The Netherlands has been conducting exercises with its allies around the world since the second half of last year. This operation was chosen before the UK, Germany, and Austria-Hungary summits. The strong signal released made people have to guess a lot.

In response, the Dutch Ministry of Defense responded lightly: "We will not make any comments on what is happening, but we will not easily make the strategic purposes formulated by the Ministry of Defense public. Your speculations are your business. We will It is said that the answer will appear one day in the future, thank you everyone!"

(End of this chapter)