The Dutch city of The Hague will host the NATO summit next week, with tight security in place as it welcomes around 6,000 delegates and world leaders from 32 countries, including U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Dutch navy will deploy seven frigates and Belgium will contribute one navy vessel to monitor all activity at sea and in the air during the summit.

It is the first time since NATO’s founding in 1949, that the Netherlands is hosting a NATO summit.

In preparation, the country has launched its largest-ever security operation, dubbed Orange Shield, involving secure motorcades, maritime combat helicopters, tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers, and sea patrols.

“The danger is that we can be surprised by a threat targeting the NATO summit, and we want to prevent that,” Commander of the Dutch air defence and command frigate “Tromp” Dennis Oorburg, told Reuters, adding that the aim is to observe from the ship everything that’s happening in the area, at sea, and in the air.

The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, told national broadcaster NOS earlier in June that, although no specific threat has been identified so far, the summit was announced well in advance, giving malicious actors plenty of time to prepare and that cybersecurity threats are being taken into account as well.

The terrorism threat level in the Netherlands is currently at level four on a five-point scale.

(Reuters)