Rutte and Hoekstra to US President Biden next week

Prime Minister Rutte and Foreign Minister Hoekstra will travel to Washington next week to meet US President Biden. Sources in The Hague informed this. It was the first time Rutte and Hoekstra met with Biden at the White House.

Next Tuesday’s main topic of conversation will be the war in Ukraine. But economic ties are also on the agenda. The Netherlands has long been an important investor and trading partner of the Americans.

Rutte was present when he met President Trump at the White House in 2019. At a NATO summit in June last year, Rutte admitted that cooperation with Trump was “a bit uncomfortable at times”.

Mr Rutte has previously said that due to the UK’s exit from the EU, our country has a “special role” as the “most Atlantic country in the EU”.

During the Trump administration, relations between the US and EU countries have deteriorated. Trump said he saw little value in NATO and put U.S. trade interests first. He took measures that affected the European steel industry.

Under Biden, ties with the European Union have been strengthened again. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reinforced this. The United States and the European Union have been massively supporting the government in Kiev with weapons and money. It involves close cooperation.

Biden adheres to part of Trump’s policy on the economic level. Washington last year brought in hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for green technology from the United States. According to some EU countries, this is illegal state aid. European countries fear that companies will move to the US to take advantage of these US financial advantages.