Dutch FM in hot water after lying about Putin meeting
THE HAGUE: Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra was in hot water on Monday after admitting he lied about attending a controversial 2006 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The country’s new top diplomat admitted over the weekend that “contrary to his previous claims, he was never present at the meeting with the Russian president,” the centre-left daily De Volkskrant said.
The revelation is an embarrassment for Zijlstra as he heads on Tuesday to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
A member of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD party — the leading party in the country’s ruling coalition — Zijlstra had previously insisted he was present at the meeting at Putin’s dacha 12 years ago which included Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s former chief executive.
Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2018