Nations with which Netherlands has diplomatic relations.
The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to the Atlantic cooperation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. While historically the Kingdom of the Netherlands was a neutral state, since 1945 it has become a member of NATO, the United Nations, the European Union and many other international organizations. The Dutch economy is very open and relies on international trade. During and after the 17th century—its Golden Age—the Dutch built up a commercial and colonial empire. It was a leading shipping and naval power and was often at war with England, its main rival. Its main colonial holding was Indonesia, which fought for and achieved independence after 1945. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. Foreign trade policy is handled by the European Union. The Dutch have been active in international peacekeeping roles.
In the Dutch Golden Age, which had its zenith around 1667, there was a flowering of trade, industry, the arts and the sciences. A rich worldwide Dutch empire developed and the Dutch East India Company became one of the earliest and most important of national mercantile companies based on entrepreneurship and trade.
During the 18th century, the power and wealth of the Netherlands declined. A series of wars with the more powerful British and French neighbors weakened it. Britain seized the North American colony of New Amsterdam, turning it into New York. There was growing unrest and conflict between the Orangists and the Patriots. The French Revolution spilled over after 1789, and a pro-French Batavian Republic was established in 1795–1806. Napoleon made it a satellite state, the Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810), and later simply a French imperial province.
In 1815–1940 it was neutral and played a minor role in world diplomacy, apart from a failed effort to control the seceding Southern provinces that became Belgium before giving up in 1839.[1]
Unlike most European countries, the Netherlands succeeded in remaining neutral throughoutThe Great War. This approach failed during the Second World War however and the kingdom quickly fell to an unprovoked German invasion in 1940 and would remain under Nazi occupation until being liberated by the allies in 1945. After the war, as a member of the allies, the Netherlands was included in the first class of U.N. members. During the Cold War like most Western European countries, the Dutch aligned with the United States against the Soviet Union, co-founding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in 1949.[2][3] The Dutch were also at the forefront of promoting European cooperation and integration during this time period; co-founding the European Coal and Steel Community and becoming one of the European Union's (EU) original members.[4]
Policy
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on 18 July 2019
The Dutch Government conducted a review of foreign policy main themes, organization, and funding in 1995. The document "The Foreign Policy of the Netherlands: A Review" outlined the new direction of Dutch foreign policy. The Netherlands prioritizes enhancing European integration, maintaining relations with neighboring states, ensuring European security and stability (mainly through the mechanism of NATO and emphasizing the important role the United States plays in the security of Europe), and participating in conflict management and peacekeeping missions. The foreign policy review also resulted in the reorganization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through the creation of regional departments, the Ministry coordinates tasks previously divided among the international cooperation, foreign affairs, and economic affairs sections.[citation needed]
Dutch security policy is based primarily on membership in NATO. Because of Dutch participation in NATO, nuclear weapons are stationed in the Netherlands, see Volkel Air Base.[citation needed]
The Dutch also pursue defense cooperation within Europe, both multilaterally – in the context of the Western European Union and the European Security and Defence Policy of the EU – and bilaterally, as in the German-Netherlands Corps. In recent years, the Dutch have become significant contributors to UN peacekeeping efforts around the world as well as to the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR) in Bosnia.[citation needed]
European integration
The Dutch have been strong advocates of European integration, and most aspects of their foreign, economic, and trade policies are coordinated through the European Union (EU). The Dutch postwar customs union with Belgium and Luxembourg (the Benelux group) paved the way for the formation of the European Community (precursor to the EU), of which the Netherlands was a founding member. Likewise, the Benelux abolition of internal border controls was a model for the wider Schengen Accord, which today has 29 European signatories (including the Netherlands) pledged to common visa policies and free movement of people across common borders.
The Dutch stood at the cradle of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and have been the architects of the Treaty of Amsterdam concluded in 1998. The Dutch have thus played an important role in European political and monetary integration; indeed, until the year 2003, Dutchman Wim Duisenberg headed the European Central Bank. In addition, Dutch financial minister Gerrit Zalm was the main critic of the violation of the Stability and Growth Pact by France and Germany in 2004 and 2005.[citation needed]
The Netherlands is among the world's leading aid donors, giving almost $8 billion, about 0.8% of its gross national income (GNI) in official development assistance (ODA). It is one of five countries worldwide that meets the longstanding UN ODA target of 0.7% ODA/GNI. The country consistently contributes large amounts of aid through multilateral channels, especially the United Nations Development Programme, the international financial institutions, and EU programs. A large portion of Dutch aid funds also is channeled through private ("co-financing") organizations that have almost total autonomy in choice of projects.[citation needed]
On 25 April 2022, Vice Minister Schuiling visited Vietnam for promotion of economic cooperation between Netherlands and Vietnam including the sectors like agriculture, water, logistics, energy and high tech.[6]
Export assistance grants
"Developing countries aspiring to purchase foreign goods and services to invest in, inter alia, port facilities, roads, public transport, health care, or drinking water facilities may be eligible for a special Dutch grant facility. The grant facility, known as ORET (a Dutch acronym for Ontwikkelingsrelevante Exporttransacties, or Development-Related Export) serves to award grants to governments of developing countries for making payments to foreign suppliers."[7]
The country is one of the major producers of illicit amphetamines and other synthetic drugs. It also functions as an important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe. A large portion of the world's XTC consumption is supplied by illegal laboratories from the Netherlands.[citation needed]
The Dutch also work with the U.S. and other countries on international programs against drug trafficking and organized crime. The Dutch-U.S. cooperation focuses on joint anti-drug operations in the Caribbean, including an agreement establishing Forward Operating Locations on the Dutch Kingdom islands of Curaçao and Aruba. The Netherlands is a signatory to international counter-narcotics agreements, a member of the United Nations International Drug Control Program, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and is a contributor to international counter-narcotics.
From June 26 until December 22, 2006, two children, Ammar (12–13) and Sara (10–11), lived in the Dutch embassy in Damascus because of a child custody dispute between the Dutch mother, supported by Dutch law and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, and the Syrian father, supported by Syrian law (Syria is no participant of this convention). The children had been living in Syria since 2004, after an alleged international child abduction by the father from the Netherlands to Syria, during a family contact in which he supposedly would visit Paris with them. The children fled to the embassy because they would like to live with their mother in the Netherlands. Minister of Foreign AffairsBen Bot traveled to Damascus, negotiated and on December 22 the children finally could return to the Netherlands.
The father claims that the Dutch government has promised not to prosecute him for the abduction. However, a Dutch prosecutor claims that he is free to prosecute the father and may well do that and that the Dutch have only retracted the international request to arrest him outside the Netherlands.[9]
Mark Rutte's government provided materials to the Levant Front rebel group in Syria.[10] In September 2018, the Dutch public prosecution department declared the Levant Front to be a "criminal organisation of terrorist intent", describing it as a "salafist and jihadistic" group that "strives for the setting up of the caliphate".[11]
In July 2019, the UN ambassadors from 22 nations, including the Netherlands, signed a joint letter to the UNHRC condemning China's mistreatment of the Uyghurs as well as its mistreatment of other minority groups, urging the Chinese government to close the Xinjiang re-education camps.[12][13]
Former colonies
The Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are dependencies of the Netherlands. The latter three are part of the Netherlands proper and are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands. Suriname and Indonesia became independent of the Netherlands in the period of decolonization: Suriname in 1975 and Indonesia in 1945 (it was not until August 16, 2005, that the Dutch government recognized 1945 and not 1949 as the latter's year of independence).[citation needed]
Canada has an embassy in The Hague and the Netherlands has one in Ottawa, and three Consulates-General in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Canada and the Netherlands have worked closely together on many foreign issues and enjoy an especially close relationship. To fostering business and commercial relations between the Netherlands and Canada the Dutch business community set up the Netherlands-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.[27] They are both members of the United Nations (and its Specialized Agencies) the World Trade Organization, Interpol, they are both founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. Canada and the Netherlands also work together on such issues as the prohibition and elimination of anti-personnel mines, the control of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, eradicating the worst forms of child labour, the provision of rapid reaction peacekeeping forces to the United Nations (SHIRBRIG) and regional security issues such as Bosnia (SFOR) and Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Both countries established diplomatic relations on 15 May 1970.[34]
Guyana was made up of three former Dutch colonies: (Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo (colony)) which were brought together by the British and renamed collectively British Guiana.
On September 27, 1993, the Netherlands Ministry of Finance announced The Netherlands – Mexico Tax Treaty and Protocol. The regulations detail the formalities residents of the Netherlands must observe "in order to be exempt from, or obtain a refund of, the Mexican withholding taxes on dividends, interest and royalties."[35] In 2008 Mexico and the Netherlands modified their existing tax treaty, initially signed in 1993 to strength cooperation to curb tax evasion.[36][37]
The bilateral relations between the two nations are based on historical and cultural ties as well as a common dedication to individual freedom and human rights. The Netherlands shares with the United States a liberal economic outlook and is committed to free trade. The Netherlands is the third-largest direct foreign investor in the United States,[42] and Dutch holding companies employ more than 650,000 Americans.[43] The United States is the third-largest direct foreign investor in the Netherlands.
The United States and the Netherlands often have similar positions on issues and work together both bilaterally and multilaterally in such institutions as the United Nations and NATO. The Dutch have worked with the United States at the World Trade Organization, in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as within the European Union to advance the shared U.S. goal of a more open and market-led global economy.
The United States and the Netherlands joined NATO as charter members in 1949. The Dutch were allies with the United States in the Korean War and the first Gulf War and have been active in global peacekeeping efforts in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Netherlands also support and participate in NATO and EU training efforts in Iraq. They are active participants in the International Security Assistance Force and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
Relations between Japan and the Netherlands date back to 1609, when the first formal trade relations were established.[56][57] The relations between Japan and the Netherlands after 1945 have been a triangular relationship. The invasion and occupation of the Netherlands East Indies during World War II, brought about the destruction of the colonial state in Indonesia, as the Japanese removed as much of the Dutch government as they could, weakening the post war grip the Netherlands had over the territory. Under pressure from the United States, the Netherlands recognised Indonesian sovereignty in 1949 (see United States of Indonesia).
Japan has an embassy in The Hague.
Netherlands has an embassy in Tokyo and a consulate-general in Osaka.
The Netherlands is Kazakhstan's largest foreign investor and the second largest European Union partner in terms of foreign trade turnover with Kazakhstan.[58]
The graves of Dutch dignitaries in Melaka's ruined St. Paul's Church.
The Dutch involvement in the Malay Peninsula used to be much more extensive than it is now. The Dutch established relations with the Sultanate of Johor in the early 17th century, and in 1641 they captured the Portuguese colony of Malacca (on the south-eastern coast of today's Peninsular Malaysia). With a long interruption during the Napoleonic Wars, the Dutch Malacca era lasted until 1824.
In the 20th century, the Netherlands established diplomatic relations with Malaysia soon after the Asian state became independent. The erudite Dutch Sinologist and author Robert van Gulik (who was raised in the former Dutch East Indies himself) served as the ambassador of the Netherlands in Kuala Lumpur in the early 1960s. During his diplomatic service there he became closely acquainted with Malaysia's gibbons (he kept a few in his ambassadorial residence) and became sufficiently interested in this ape species to start the study of its role in ancient Chinese culture, the results of which he later published in his last book (Gibbon in China).[59]
The establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the Kingdom of the Netherlands began on April 1, 1961.
Relations between the Netherlands and South Korea are excellent. The Netherlands are known in the country, thanks to increasing trade and the investments made by Dutch businesses.
Political relations
South Koreans still appreciate the contribution made by Dutch troops, serving under the UN flag, during the Korean War of 1950–1953. The Netherlands was an ally to South Korea throughout the war, against communist North Korea (backed by the Soviet Union). The Netherlands still monitors developments between South Korea and North Korea with interest, and remain an ally. In 2011 the Netherlands and South Korea marked 50 years of diplomatic relations.
The Netherlands frequently serves as an example to South Korea, for example in the areas of development cooperation and water management. In 2011, for instance, a South Korean delegation visited parts of the Room for the River project – designed to make the Dutch river delta safer by 2015 – to gain inspiration for a South Korean water management plan.[62]
The Netherlands has a Working Holiday Program Agreement with South Korea. Citizens of both countries can live and work in the other for up to two years.
Both countries were establishment of diplomatic relations in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Peter the Great studied in Holland. During the Cold War, all the Dutch consecutive governments perceived the Warsaw pact including the Soviet Union and Russia as a threat to its safety.
^A. Vandenbosch, Dutch Foreign Policy since 1815 (1959).
^Cees Wiebes and Bert Zeeman, "The Pentagon Negotiations March 1948: The Launching of the North Atlantic Treaty." International Affairs 59.3 (1983): 351-363.
^"Mexico: Netherlands And Mexican Regulations To The Netherlands – Mexico Treaty Announced". Deloitte & Touche. September 23, 1997. Retrieved June 6, 2009. In a press release dated 14 March 1997, the Netherlands Ministry of Finance announced the Netherlands and Mexican regulations under the Netherlands – Mexico tax treaty and protocol, both of 27 September 1993. The Mexican regulations deal with the formalities to be observed by residents of the Netherlands in order to be exempt from, or obtain a refund of, the Mexican withholding taxes on dividends, interest and royalties.
^"Mexico, Netherlands amend treaty to curb tax evasion". Xinhua. 2008. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2009. Mexico and the Netherlands modified a tax treaty signed in 1993 in a bid to strength cooperation to curb tax evasion, Mexican Treasury and Public Credit Ministry said on Friday.
^Netherl, British Embassy The Hague Lange Voorhout 10 2514 ED The Hague; enquiries, s Telephone +3170 4270 427 Use our contact form for consular; note, including on your rights after the UK’s exit from the EU: www gov uk/contact-consulate-the-haguePlease; issues, the Consular Section is accessed via Kleine Kazernestraat to the side of the embassy building For enquiries that are not about consular; Times, Opening. "British Embassy The Hague - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk.
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![Azure, billetty Or a lion with a coronet Or armed and langued Gules holding in his dexter paw a sword Argent hilted Or and in the sinister paw seven arrows Argent pointed and bound together Or. [The seven arrows stand for the seven provinces of the Union of Utrecht.] The shield is crowned with the (Dutch) royal crown and supported by two lions Or armed and langued gules. They stand on a scroll Azure with the text (Or) "Je Maintiendrai" (French for "I will maintain".)](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/State_coat_of_arms_of_the_Netherlands.svg/300px-State_coat_of_arms_of_the_Netherlands.svg.png)
