Key directions of German-Dutch and German-French Cooperation in the field of mutual reinforcement of Defence Capabilities
Since the former Cold War, the Federal Republic of Germany has had the closest, the most full-scale and different in the spectrum of tracks relations in the sphere of common strengthening of the defence capabilities with the continental Western European countries. First, these ones are France and the Netherlands. The article tries to explore German relations with these two countries in the military sphere during the modern period. The key research methods are event-analysis and comparative analysis. The paper covers the experience of the creation of the first bilateral and multilateral military groups of NATO member states` armed forces which consist of staffs and military forces of the mixed troop system. The article notes that first military groups of this kind were created on the territory of the united Germany and examines the reasons of this tendency. Special attention is paid to the development of German-Dutch Corpspotential. This one, the 1 st tank division and the division of rapid reaction forces (each of those divisions has one Dutch brigade) of the Bundeswehr are explored as military mechanisms of deep integration between the two countries. The article also identifies the features of military-technical German-Dutch cooperation, including their common efforts in the frames of Permanent Structured Cooperation platform. The article compares the scales and quality of German-Dutch and German-French cooperation. In this regard the paper rises the question about real military importance of German-French brigade and cooperation between two countries in military-technical field, including the creation of robotized technics. The paper shows the limits of German-French cooperation potential until the early 2020 s. Based on the results of theresearch the author concludes on special role of Netherlands for Germany in military sphere.