Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans visited Clingendael on Thursday 30 May to talk to the participants in the course for Dutch junior diplomats, also known as ‘het klasje’. He gave a short opening speech during which he spoke about the time he himself was taking classes at the Clingendael Institute, back in 1987. He also discussed the challenges for the Dutch MFA in the Netherlands as well as for the Netherlands worldwide.

After his opening speech there was room for Q&A. The participants discussed with Minister Timmermans the report on the modernization of diplomacy that was presented to him that very morning by Arthur Docters van Leeuwen. Another topic of discussion was the cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries. The Minister and the participants agreed that modern diplomats should be able to practice ‘hybrid-diplomacy’, being able to move both in existing international structures and make the most of the network-societies we live in nowadays. Minister Timmermans seemed confident that he would be able to make full use of the fresh, new ideas of these junior diplomats when readying the Dutch MFA for the future.

The one-hour session was closed with a quick photo-shoot, after which the Minister had to leave for his next meeting. Within 10 minutes the meeting was posted on the Minister’s Facebook page, thus putting into practice what had just been discussed.

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