Belgian fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers over the North Sea on Friday.
The two Tupolev Tu-160 machines entered NATO airspace, which the Netherlands is responsible for monitoring, without notification, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said in the evening.
The Belgian F-16s then escorted the Russian planes to a zone managed by Great Britain, where Royal Air Force jets took over surveillance.
"It happens from time to time that Russian planes break into NATO airspace without identifying themselves," said the Dutch Ministry of Defense.
Relations between Russia and the Netherlands are mainly affected by the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Most of the 298 fatalities were Dutch.