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April 29, 2005
Dutch Foreign Minister Blunt on Bolton Nomination
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot “does not quite understand” why newborn multilateralist George Bush picked John Bolton as his man at the UN. Minister Bot recently described Bolton as being ‘anti-UN’ and thought his nomination was at least ‘peculiar’ if not worse, reports the Dutch Elsevier Magazine on April 11th.
Certainly this is not the harshest criticism Bolton has had to face in the past few weeks, especially since he has been grilled by the United States Senate during his confirmation hearing. But what makes the statements of Minister Bot remarkable is that the Dutch government has for a long time been a staunch supporter of the Bush Administration on many important issues, such as the war in Iraq. The Dutch however always believed that in the end Bush would choose, or be forced to choose, multilateral solutions to international problems. That was what they were promised by Bush himself. But now, at the beginning of Bush’s second term in office, that promise seems about to be broken. Not only has Bolton always been very sceptical towards the UN, he has also been a fierce opponent of the International Criminal Court of which The Netherlands are the proud hosts. Minister Bot must fear that with Bolton at the UN, the ICC might once again come under heavy pressure.
Bot’s uncharacteristic bluntness regarding Bolton may not have much influence on Bolton’s nomination process, but the small rift in Dutch-US relations comes at a very awkward time. On the 7th and the 8th of May, President Bush will visit The Netherlands in order to attend a commemoration service at a cemetery for American casualties of the Second World War. The Dutch public is not very fond of Bush as it is, and with the added official criticism of his choice for the UN, Bush may find The Netherlands a very inhospitable country indeed.
Posted April 29, 2005 10:05 AM
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