Foreign Relations of The Netherlands

Foreign Relations Of The Netherlands

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 Netherlands was a neutral state, since the second World War the Netherlands became a member of a large number of international organisations. The Dutch economy is very open and relies on international trade. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs and position of the Netherlands as one of the major exporters of hard drugs. During and after its golden age, the Dutch built up a commercial and colonial empire, which fell apart quickly after the Second World War; the historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands.

Read more about Foreign Relations Of The Netherlands:  Policy, Atlantic Cooperation, European Integration, Third World Development, Export Assistance Grants, International Law, International Organizations, International Issues, Former Colonies, Europe

Famous quotes containing the words foreign, relations and/or netherlands:

    The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter’s at Rome, by the feeling that these structures are imitations also,—faint copies of an invisible archetype.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Subject the material world to the higher ends by understanding it in all its relations to daily life and action.
    Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)

    Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.
    Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)