By Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland, Justice in the Court of Appeal and honorary Special Advisor International Affairs of the Municipality of The Hague
For most people outside the diplomatic world diplomacy is something they do not know much about. They see expensive cars with chauffeurs and a CD-registration in the streets of The Hague, they see the ambassadors only with a glass of wine in their hands on photo’s in some newspapers and wonder what kind of work they do. That’s why it was a very good thing that the national Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad had a four page article on ‘Diplomatenstad Den Haag’ on Saturday November 16th. The Ambassadors of Kosovo and Spain, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mayor of The Hague, as well as I myself (The Hague’s ‘city ambassador’, the paper wrote) were interviewed for it. I think that the readers of NRC Handelsblad do now have a much better idea about the important work of diplomacy.
The ambassador of Kosovo H.E. Vjosa Dobruna had been chosen because she had to present her credentials to the King on October 16th, in the period that the journalist wrote his article. Other new ambassadors who we welcomed were on October 9th H.E.’s Ms. Liisa Talonpoika (Finland), Mr. Ahmad Mufleh (Jordan) and Ms. Maymouna Diop Sy (Senegal), on October 16th Mr. Taher Ahmed Farahat (Egypt) and Mr. Roman Kirn (Slovenia), on October 30th Mr. Ibrahim Sorie (Sierra Leone), Mr. Petar Vico (Serbia) and Mr. Wilson Masilingi (Tanzania) and on November 6th Mr. Emilian Brenici (Moldova) and Mr. Adani Illo (Niger).
Hopefully they and other ambassadors will learn about the history of our country –in the presence of the King- on Saturday November 30th on the beach of Scheveningen, because basically with the Landing of The Prince 200 years before, the Kingdom started (in 1815).
