About Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba

The Caribbean Netherlands (Dutch: Caribisch Nederland) is the part of the Netherlands that is in the Caribbean. The rest of the country is in Europe. The Caribbean Netherlands is made up of three special municipalities (bijzondere gemeenten): the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. They are also called the BES islands.

The Caribbean Netherlands does not include the other Dutch countries in the Caribbean (Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten). Those are three of the four countries that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The fourth country is the Netherlands proper. The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands are fully part of the Netherlands proper. They were made a part of the Netherlands when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved (broken apart) on 10 October 2010.

Although the islands are now part of the Netherlands, they are not yet part of the European Union. They will instead remain overseas territories until at least 2015. They are different to other municipalities in the Netherlands. Unlike normal municipalities, they do not form part of a Dutch province.

The above background information was quoted from: https://www.un.int/jamaica/jamaica/basic-facts