(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands will integrate the rest of its combat brigades into the German army as the two allies join military forces amid increased security threats in the region.   

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has catapulted us into a new era of collective European defense,” said Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren Thursday at a joint military ceremony in Veitshöchheim, Germany.

The Dutch land force has three combat brigades and two of them had already been integrated into the German military. The ceremony marks the merger of the last Dutch 13th Light Brigade consisting of 3,000 soldiers into the German Army’s 10th Panzer Division. 

The plan will result in a force of around 50,000 military personnel, with roughly 8,000 soldiers coming from the Netherlands. The integration plans don’t include the Korps Commandotroepen, the special forces unit of the Dutch Army. 

The merger comes on the heels of a symbolic joint cabinet meeting between Germany and the Netherlands in Rotterdam, a Dutch city that was bombed heavily by the Germans during World War II. 

Dutch Army to Merge Land Combat Units With Germany This Year 

The integration of the armed forces of the two countries won’t impact the sovereignty of the Dutch army, Ollongren said in a February letter to parliament. Both the governments will be able to decide independently on the deployment of their armed forces, she said. 

The cultural differences between the German and Dutch armies may pose some challenges, according to Martin Wijnen, commander of the Royal Netherlands Army. 

“If a German commander takes a decision, it is the end of the discussion,” Wijnen said last week in the Dutch parliament. “When a commander takes a decision in the Netherlands, it is the start of a discussion,” he said. “But we have to respect each other.”  

Ollongren also acknowledged some of the differences but “in the end, there are more similarities,” she said.

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