Several countries have pledged extra help for Yemen to combat terrorism at a one day summit in London, but no military involvement is planned. Dutch Development Coordination minister Bert Koenders is not fully satisfied with the outcome, saying the international community should focus on all countries in the region, not just on Yemen.

Listen to a Newsline interview with RNW's correspondent Bette Dam:

A ticket for Detroit and a pair of underpants full of explosives – that’s all al-Qaeda apparently needed to force world leaders to rethink their strategy towards Yemen.  “It only takes a burning pair of underpants to kick start a summit like this”, Mr Koenders said wryly after the conference.
 

Broader scope
“But this conference should have a much broader scope”, he commented. “Take Somalia, for instance. That country poses a threat as well so I really would have liked to see that on the agenda, but it wasn’t. I will try to put that on the agenda in the future”.
 

Mr Koenders blamed “inward looking countries” for not looking beyond Yemen’s problems. “These countries are paying more attention to their own problems  than to global issues. I’m really not sure whether a summit like this really helps”.
 

Target group
But despite Mr Koenders’ criticism, the Netherlands will play a major role in the future of Yemen. It will head one of the special target groups for the country, which will be set up after the London summit. The Netherlands will lead the Justice target group, together with Jordan.
 

“Dutch involvement in Yemen has always been very strong – the Netherlands donate 90 million euros a year”, our Radio Netherlands correspondent at the summit, Bette Dam, explains. “So that’s why the Dutch didn’t pledge more money, but they simply want more control over where the money is going. As an active member of one of those target groups they can keep a sharp eye on that”.
 

Military involvement was not discussed during the summit. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen confirmed that the Netherlands is not contemplating sending troops to solve Yemen’s problems.
 

Money well spent?
The London summit only lasted for a day, which is not enough to ensure that the situation in Yemen won’t get out of hand, Bette Dam says. “Much more needs to be done. For instance, many countries have pledged extra money to the Yemen government, but that’s just the problem – the Yemen president spends this money for his own purpose so these countries want to be sure that their money will be well spent”.
 

A future summit, to be held in Saudi Arabia, will focus on that aspect.

Photo by ANP.