Conferral of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Rays upon Mrs. Elizabeth van der Wind, former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the NetherlandsOn Thursday 21 June, at 17:30 hours, Mrs. Elizabeth van der Wind, former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, received in the name of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Rays during a special ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Hiroshi Inomata.With this decoration, the Japanese government recognises her exceptional contribution to the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands.By Sheila Turabaz
On the 21st of June 2018, Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Wind-Hamill, former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, was awarded the prestigious Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Rays at a conferment ceremony hosted by the Ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands H.E. Mr. Hiroshi Inomata. The Order of the Sacred Treasure called Zuihosho (瑞宝章) in Japanese, is bestowed upon women and men in recognition of their exceptional achievements in various fields in civil or military service.
His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan conferred this decoration, presented by H.E. Mr. Inomata, to recognize Mrs. Van der Wind-Hamill’s significant contribution to promoting Dutch-Japanese relations during her 33 years of service for the Embassy of Japan. Mrs. Van der Wind-Hamill’s friends, family, (former) colleagues and prominent figures of the Japanese community gathered at Ambassador Inomata’s residence in The Hague to celebrate this occasion. Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Dries Van Agt, who served as an Ambassador of the European Union to Japan in the 1980s, also attended the ceremony.
During the ceremony, the Ambassador spoke of Mrs. Van der Wind-Hamill’s accomplishments in the past decades, particularly mentioning her valuable contribution to the promotion of Dutch-Japanese relations as well as her personal qualities that made her a valuable staff member:
“She started working at the Embassy in 1980 as a clerk at the Department of Cultural Affairs, Press and Information. Proficient in English, French, and Dutch, she soon turned out to be a true asset. Mrs. Elizabeth van der Wind’s husband, Mr. van der Wind, Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Wind-Hamill, former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, Ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands H.E. Mr. Hiroshi Inomata and his spouse Mrs. Midori Inomata.During her days at the Embassy she was involved in quite a few high-profile events, such as the visit of Their Imperial Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in 2000. That year marked 400 years of relations between the Netherlands and Japan and various festive activities were organized with her help throughout the year. In such an intensive year, she also contributed much to the public communications of the Embassy, which certainly laid the basis for a new bilateral relationship between Japan and the Netherlands. (…) In the meantime, she was promoted from clerk to senior clerk in recognition of her long and outstanding service to the Embassy. (…)One of the skills that she excels at, and I think that the amount of people gathered here today is proof of that, is her ability to connect people with each other. In her years at the Embassy she forged a strong network among economic, academic, cultural and other circles, which shows how dedicated she was. In this way, she was a catalyst for the promotion and development of other Japan-related organizations in the Netherlands in cooperation with the Embassy. ”Former Primer Minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Dries Van Agt and Sheila Turabaz.
Mrs.Van der Wind-Hamill – dressed elegantly in black but now adorned with a star-shaped badge consisting of 20 white enameled rays and with a central frame of rubies – could not contain her excitement, smiling continuously throughout the ceremony. Her acceptance speech was an expression of humility and gratitude to all the people with whom she has worked with over the years:
“(…) Let me take you back to January 4th 1980. (…)In those early pre-computer years, the pace was slow, the staff was small and all was relatively quiet on the ‘eastern’ front. These were the ‘learning’ years and among my teachers were Willem van Gulik and Jaap Rost Onnes. They were and are the very best. For your support and friendship I owe you both a debt of gratitude that I can never repay. (…) In my 33 years at the Embassy of Japan I saw the coronation of a new emperor, an historically meaningful state visit to this country by Their Imperial Majesties and the establishment of what I view to see as the jewel in the crown of Japanese-Dutch relations – Japan Museum Siebold Huis in Leiden where it is my good fortune to work. I watched as the Japanese language and culture were embraced by an ever-increasing number of enthusiastic Dutch students and saw Japanese cuisine change the eating habits of the average Dutchman. (…) If I have contributed in any way to promoting Japanese-Dutch relations it was not without your help and that of so many others. Each and every one of you in this room has contributed in one way or another so it belongs – in part to all of you.”
After the ceremony’s conclusion, family and friends of Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Wind-Hamill as well as other Japan enthusiasts mingled at the reception and were treated with some of the finest Japanese sushi at the reception.
H.E. Aviv Shir-On, Ambassador of Israel and H.E. Hector Horacio Salvador, Ambassador of Argentina.By John Dunkelgrün.
No name in the world evokes the agony and the suffering as a result of racial and religious discrimination more than that of Anne Frank, the 16 year old Jewish girl that after more than two years of hiding from the Nazi’s was deported, together with her family, to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp and murdered.
Mrs. Sira Soetendorp, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and Mrs. Jane Berger de Salvador, among the audience the ambassadors of Israel, Bulgaria, Poland, Peru and El Salvador.
Her very name is iconic from Japan to Argentina, from California to New Zealand, in the struggle against all sorts of discrimination. Every year millions of visitors from around the globe visit her hiding place, the “Anne Frank Huis” in Amsterdam.
It is run by the Anne Frank Stichting, an organization devoted to teaching about the Holocaust and generally about discrimination. It teaches teachers and disseminates course material. Its aim is to keep the memory alive of Anne Frank and of the horrors that killed her and to make people aware of the dangers of discrimination in any form.
Mr Hector Shalom, President Centro Anna Frank in Buenos Aires.
To further this goal, the Anne Frank Stichting has been instrumental at the establishment ten years ago of the Centro Ana Frank in Buenos Aires. This center has broadly the same goals as the Amsterdam organization and has reached thousands with its programmes. One of its activities is an annual visit to the Anne Frank Huis by a group of young people selected after an essay writing competition to which many hundreds enter every year.
This year the Argentinean Ambassador, H.E. Horacio Salvador, and Sra. Jane Berger de Salvador invited the group of winners to a special event at the Residence. The group was led by the President of the Centro, Sr. Hector Shalom and the coordinator of its educational programmes, Rabbi Silvina Chemen.Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp.
The programme started with the very emotional testimonies by Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp of The Hague and his wife Mrs. Sira Soetendorp. Rabbi Soetendorp told Mrs. Sira Soetendorp that when he was a little baby a Gestapo squad entered his parents’ house and would have taken them away if not for the officer in charge who, after seeing him as a baby, said: “What a pity he is a Jewish baby”. His father replied that he was glad it was a Jewish baby because he would always know that his father was not a murderer.
Thereupon the officer swore and shouted while taking his men out of this “stinking Jewish hole” and vowing to come back to arrest them the next day. In this way, he gave them the possibility to flee. Rabbi Soetendorp said that if the heart of a single man could be moved to save a baby, there was still hope for humanity, even in the very worst of times. It was reminiscent of the Talmudic saying that “He who saves a single life is as of he has saved the whole world”.Actress Zoe Hochbaum.
After a musical interlude, a short film was shown made from a play “La Ventana del Arbol y Ana Frank“, the window of the tree and Anne Frank. In it, the lovely Actress Zoe Hochbaum who was present plays Anne Frank writing and rereading her diary, philosophizing about the world and its many injustices. Again the play, the movie, effectively and emotionally warn us about the dangers of prejudice, discrimination, and alienation.
The event was concluded by a reception in the lush gardens of the Residence, where the guests, among which were many ambassadors, the delegation from the Centro Ana Frank and the Anne Frank Stichting and rabbis from The Hague and Amsterdam were treated to Argentinean specialties and superb wines.
Hats off to Ambassador Salvador and his Embassy team for hosting this annual delegation and helping to further the efforts of these wonderful and regrettably very necessary organizations.
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Photography by John Dunkelgrün and GNS BW.
Alexandre and David de Rothschild – Picture by Rothschild Media Room.
Chairman Alexandre de Rothschild for Rothschild & Co. Gestion
Rothschild & Co. chose Baron Alexandre de Rothschild to replace his father as the investment bank’s top executive on May 2018, a long-planned succession that puts the seventh generation of the family in charge.
The younger Rothschild took over from his 75-year-old father, Baron David de Rothschild, who became chairman of the supervisory board at the shareholders’ meeting according to a company statement below. Alexandre was appointed executive chairman of Rothschild & Co. Gestion, Rothschild & Co.’s managing partner.
Alexandre, 37, joined the family company a decade ago to focus on the merchant-banking division after working at other financial firms. Under his father, the bank changed its corporate structure, combining its French and U.K. units to form Paris Orléans SA, a Paris-traded company that was renamed Rothschild & Co. in 2015.
More recently, the lender has sought to expand in the U.S. Over the past two years, Rothschild & Co. has sought to expand its footprint in U.S. advisory by hiring senior bankers and opening offices in San Francisco and Chicago. In France, the company last year acquired Cie. Financiere Martin Maurel, a Marseille-based wealth manager, to broaden its private-banking and lending activities for affluent families.
With a team of approximately 3 500 financial services specialists on the ground in over 40 countries across the world, Rothschild & Co. provides long-term solutions for our clients in Global Advisory, Private Wealth & Asset Management and Merchant Banking. Rothschild & Co is family-controlled and independent and has been at the centre of the world’s financial markets for over 200 years.
Christian Sewing 8 April 2018, Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Deutsche Bank AG officially named Christian Sewing as its new chief executive, replacing John Cryan.
Sewing served previously the German lender’s co-deputy CEO and co-head of the private and commercial bank. He has been on the management board of the bank since January 2015.
The 47-year-old has worked at Deutsche Bank since 1989 in areas including audit and risk. He possesses work experience from Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Toronto.
The bank also appointed two members of its management board, Garth Ritchie and Karl von Rohr, as dual presidents.
Deutsche Bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. Deutsche Bank is Germany’s leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Denmark’s State Secretary for Foreign Policy Visits OPCW
The Hague, Netherlands — 18 July 2018 —The State Secretary for Foreign Policy of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mr Jonas Bering Liisberg, met with the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, during a visit yesterday to OPCW Headquarters in The Hague.
The Director-General and the State Secretary discussed issues related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), concentrating on OPCW’s activities in Syria and efforts to counter the threat of non-State actor use of chemical weapons.
Ambassador Üzümcü expressed his appreciation for Denmark’s strong commitment to the international norm against chemical weapons. He further highlighted Denmark’s invaluable contribution to the OPCW-facilitated international effort to remove and verifiably destroy the Syrian Arab Republic’s declared chemical weapons as well as the removal of the remnants of Libya’s former chemical weapons programme.
“Denmark’s staunch commitment to the Chemical Weapons Convention and its readiness to contribute to OPCW’s activities deserves the highest recognition; such contributions make our common goal of a world free of chemical weapons a viable enterprise,” stated the Director-General.
State Secretary Liisberg highlighted the importance of the CWC and expressed: “Denmark stands firmly behind the Chemical Weapons Convention and the OPCW as essential elements in confronting today’s security challenges. There can be no impunity for the use of chemical weapons in Syria or elsewhere, and Denmark stands ready to support the OPCW in attributing responsibility as a means of prevention, now and in the future.”
OPCW Provides Technical Assistance for Amesbury, UK Incident
THE HAGUE, Netherlands— 18 July 2018 —The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) received a request on 13 July from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) for the OPCW to provide technical assistance regarding the incident in Amesbury.
In response to the request, the OPCW deployed a technical assistance team to independently determine the nature of the substance that is alleged to have resulted in the death of one person and left another person seriously ill.
The OPCW team collected samples. The samples will be sent to two OPCW designated laboratories and once the results of the analysis are received, the report will be submitted to the United Kingdom. The team completed its initial work and returned today, 18 July, from the UK.
The UK’s request for assistance was made in accordance with Article VIII 38 (e) of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Dominican Minister-Counselor to Uruguay, Dr. Eugenio Matos G. was recently recognized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, in Canada, the International Public Diplomacy Council and the Deanship of the Diplomatic Corps of Canada, for succeeding in international relations and fostering Public Diplomacy overseas.
The distinction was made on the occasion of the inaugural ceremony of the 1st Canada’s Ambassador of the Year and Public Diplomacy Awards 2018 (First Ambassador of the Year of Canada and the Public Diplomacy Awards).
Dr. Matos is one amongst five heads of diplomatic missions that launched Diplomat Magazine in 2013 in The Hague, the very first diplomatic publication in the Netherlands´ history.
The very well attended event counted with the presence of Dr. Roy Norton, Chief of Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada (Global Affairs Canada), officials of the Federal Government, more than fifty foreign ambassadors accredited to Canada, representatives of international organizations, members of the Canadian Senate and the media.
One shall remember that in February 2017 Eugenio Matos received from the hands of the Dominican Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem, the Recognition of Merit for his support in the modernization of military skydiving of the Dominican Air Force.
On the picture:H.E. Florence Chideya, Ambassador of Zimbabwe and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps of Canada; Dean and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa Mr. Pierre Thibault and Mrs. Céline Lévesque handling the recognition to Dominican Minister-Counselor Dr. Eugenio Matos G.
Yesterday, an action took place in the Netherlands against an internationally active group involved in voice phishing. In the presence of Swiss authorities, two suspects were arrested and several searches were carried out in the Netherlands.
The crimes occurred when bank customers in various countries received e-mails and telephone calls claiming to be from their bank, asking for banking log in information. With this information, the group was able to illegally transfer money out of the customers’ accounts.
Swiss authorities began an investigation into the group, and asked the Dutch authorities for assistance. The Dutch authorities also opened their own investigation.
Eurojust held three coordination meetings, in March, April and June 2018, to prepare for today’s action. Eurojust also facilitated the discussions regarding mutual legal assistance requests.
Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard appointed member of UN panel on digital cooperation
12 July 2018, Swiss Confederation – Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, announced the launch of a high-level panel on digital cooperation issues. Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard accepted Secretary-General Guterres’ invitation to participate as a member of this Panel. It consists of 22 international leaders from government, the private sector, academia and civil society. The Panel will draw up proposals for improving global governance in relation to digitisation.
The committee shall be chaired by Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba Group. The panel will begin its work in August and by spring 2019 will produce a report with specific recommendations concerning the improvement of global digital co-operation. It will be supported by a secretariat based in New York and Geneva led by Amandeep Gill, India’s ambassador to the UN Conference on Disarmament, and Jovan Kurbalija, Director of the DiploFoundation and head of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP).
Doris Leuthard served as Helvetian president until the end of 2017.
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Donald Tusk and Shinzo Abe at the signing ceremony – Picture by European Union
Tuesday, 17 July 2018, 25th EU-Japan summit: A historic agreement to bring about a future of free and fair trade between Japan and the EU was signed at Tokyo. The new Economic Partnership Agreement will lead to increased openness, transparency, and easier Japan-EU trade. This agreement will strengthen economic cooperation between Japan and the EU and, by creating new business opportunities, reinforce their competitiveness as mature yet innovative economies.
The EPA is one of the largest and most comprehensive economic agreements that either the EU or Japan have concluded so far. This EPA will create a huge economic zone with 600 million people and approximately 30 percent of the world GDP, and it will open up tremendous trade and investment opportunities and will contribute to strengthening our economies and societies.
The EU was represented by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade, also partook at the Summit. Japan was represented by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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