The security of the Netherlands in 2023 has required the AIVD to investigate not only many but often urgent threats. In many ways, the grim picture painted by the AIVD last year has gotten worse. So states the AIVD in its 2023 annual report.
Increasingly, national threats are linked to international developments. There are two major conflicts, numerous terrorist attack plots have been foiled in the Netherlands and abroad, and the Netherlands is a daily target of cyber attacks to spy and exploit economic advantages.
On the borders of NATO territory, the biggest war in Europe since World War II is still raging. A war in which Russia is using nuclear rhetoric. And in which Russia's stance against the West has only hardened in the past year. To this was added the conflict in Gaza in 2023. A conflict that if further escalated could destabilize the Middle East and have a major impact on world security.
The situation is so precarious in part because the balance of power that has long existed in the world has become unbalanced. Many countries are trying to strengthen their position at the expense of others. That is not armed struggle. But there is conflict. And it affects the Netherlands and its interests. Countries conduct that conflict by carrying out cyber attacks in search of economic advantage. By spying here, or interfering in our affairs. Sometimes with great brutality. For example, Russia tried to influence our public debate in 2023 and has had a hand in demonstrations in the Netherlands against Western support for Ukraine.
China is eroding the earning power of Dutch business through cyber attacks, use of espionage, insiders, covert investments and illegal exports. Discovering and preventing them was not for nothing one of the AIVD's 2023 priorities. These actions are not isolated. For China, they are means to an end. That goal is to be one of the leading world powers. China is now effectively able to bend world relations to its will. The consequences for the Netherlands may be far-reaching. Therefore, the AIVD will have to intensify its investigation of threats from China.
Within the Netherlands, the main terrorist threat from global jihadism increased. Although the number of attacks carried out by jihadists in Europe declined since 2017, the AIVD has warned each year that a trigger event could cause a resurgence of the jihadist movement and an increase in the threat.
Exactly that happened 2023. In fact, there were two mobilizing issues: Koran destruction in the Netherlands and other European countries and the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Both could be reasons for jihadists and other radical Muslims to use violence here. ISIS and al-Qaida tried to capitalize on this with repeated calls for followers to carry out attacks in the West. Western intelligence and security services, including the AIVD, discovered and foiled at least a dozen attack plans in Europe. In four cases, people were arrested and threats removed following an AIVD official report in the Netherlands.
Moreover, we saw polarization and unrest in society. The conflict in Gaza, so soon after corona, is yet another subject on which people are diametrically opposed to each other. The social debate about it is not the AIVD's purview. But this polarization also affects extremist and terrorist movements in the Netherlands. The conflict in Gaza in 2023 has hardened extremist views. And sometimes, as with jihadism, that contributed to concrete or imaginable threats. Controversial and predominantly anti-Semitic statements by extremist leaders, moreover, contributed to fear among the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
The AIVD further notes that by 2023, anti-institutional extremists increasingly had their backs to society. Municipalities, the Tax Department, the police and the judiciary struggled with how to deal with people who feel that laws and rules do not apply to them. The April 2024 brochure on the sovereign movement in the Netherlands should help the government deal better with the group. Where necessary with nuance. Where it must with urgency. A small subgroup of the anti-institutional extremists enjoys particular attention from the service. This group is preparing to use violence against the Dutch government and institutions - what they see as the "evil elite.
The AIVD views criminal subversion as a problem for national security. Its protection is a task of the AIVD. In 2023, the service investigated criminal networks that threaten the democratic legal order through extreme violence, infiltration and corruption. The investigation should help ensure that judges, journalists, administrators and members of parliament can do their jobs freely and safely.
We have seen in recent years a significant threat from various countries against our economic security. We see this in vital sectors such as the maritime and financial sectors, among others. The AIVD therefore invested in the topics of knowledge security, economic security and the protection of vital interests in 2023. Last year, for example, the AIVD continued to contribute to the Knowledge Security Laboratory. Also in 2023, the AIVD was involved in the creation of the Economic Security Entrepreneur's Counter, which is the government's point of contact for knowledge-intensive small and medium-sized businesses with questions about economic security.
