The harbor in Rotterdam will host regular military drills and would have a dedicated quay for NATO supply ships, the newspaper has said

The port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is preparing for a possible conflict between NATO and Russia by reserving space for vessels carrying weapons and making plans to host regular military drills, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Western European politicians have frequently claimed that Russia harbors aggressive intentions against NATO countries - accusations that Moscow has dismissed as detached from reality.   

The port of Rotterdam, which is the largest in Europe and handles over 460 million tons of cargo annually, would have a dedicated quay for NATO supply ships in the event of a conflict with Russia, something that was not the case even at the height of the Cold War, the FT said.

The harbor is currently coordinating with the neighboring port of Antwerp in Belgium on how to manage cargo flows if multiple vessels with US, British, and Canadian military hardware and supplies would have to dock in the Dutch city, according to the newspaper.

"Not every terminal is fit for handling military cargo," Boudewijn Siemons, chief executive of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, told the FT. "If large volumes of military goods would have to be shipped, we would look to Antwerp or other ports to take over some capacity and the other way around. We see each other less and less as competitors."

According to Siemons, one or more ships would be docked at the quay for several weeks, four or five times a year. Rotterdam will also host several amphibious military exercises annually as part of preparations for a potential conflict, he said.

The report comes amid a broader militarization drive among European NATO members. In an interview with the New York Times at the weekend, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte acknowledged that the bloc's recent decision to increase military spending to 5% of GDP was "an enormous amount," but claimed that "if we do not [do this], we will have to learn Russian."

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Russian officials have condemned the militarization push in Western European nations, urging them to support US-led peace initiatives for the Ukraine conflict instead of gearing up for war with Moscow.

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet that certain Western politicians are "demonizing" Moscow and trying to portray it as "an enemy to rally populations tired of social and economic problems."