Minister Hoekstra: ‘Speech that Putin gave is a fake story’ Abroad

Hoekstra: ,,Putin is constantly trying to pretend that the situation in Ukraine is something where two parties are to blame. He’s trying to get the West and the United States involved.” The minister is thus responding to the Russian president who said today, among other things, that the West playing a dangerous game and blinded by colonialism. “My colleagues here in Latin America and I have very clear in mind that this is an unjust war started by Russia. The good news is that we all see that it’s a fake narrative go.”

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He added that it is important that the European and Latin American countries continue to work together against Russia. Hoekstra thus concludes his lightning visit to Buenos Aires, where he attended a major ministerial summit with his European and Latin American colleagues. He spoke one-on-one with colleagues from Ecuador, Peru and Panama, among others.

Hoekstra did not speak to his colleagues from Nicaragua and Venezuela. Nicaragua broke diplomatic relations with our country at the beginning of this month. The minister again expressed his deep concern about democracy and human rights in the Central American country. Earlier this week, Hoekstra was on a working visit to Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba to talk to the prime ministers and governors there.

In the presence of local officials from Buenos Aires and the Dutch ambassador, among others, Hoekstra revealed again the statue of Anne Frank that was stolen at the beginning of March. Less than twelve hours after the disappearance, the image surfaced in ‘Barrio 31’, a poor and not harmless neighborhood in the capital. Thanks to camera images, the statue could be quickly turned into tracked downbut the motive and the perpetrators have not been released.

Hoekstra: “Anne Frank reminds us that we must continue to defend our human rights, tolerance and diversity.” He said that millions of Ukrainians are fleeing Russia’s aggression, and that many have died like Anne Frank. “It is our duty to hold those perpetrators accountable even now.”

The statue of Anne Frank – made by artist Jet Schepp – is a copy of her statue on the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam. There are only two copies of it. The other is in the German capital Berlin. The statue had been there since 2014, when it was unveiled in the presence of Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp (father Otto Frank’s friend) and Centro Ana Frank Argentina, among others, who placed it there in collaboration with the Dutch embassy. Argentina has – an estimated quarter of a million Jews – one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.