THE Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrived in Kuala Lumpur today for a two-day working visit to Malaysia.

The special aircraft carrying Rutte and his delegation landed at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, at 3.35pm today.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin was on hand to receive Rutte. The Dutch leader later inspected a guard of honour mounted by 28 officers and men from the First Battalion of the Royal Ranger Regiment (Ceremonial Infantry), led by Captain Amirul Akmal Osman.

Rutte is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tomorrow, where the two leaders will evaluate the progress of bilateral ties especially cooperation in trade, investment, cultural exchange, palm oil, agriculture and agricommodity and discuss the issue of Islamophobia.

In the meeting, both leaders are expected to exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Rutte will also meet with Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof, who is also the plantation and commodities minister and take part in a symbolic planting of an oil palm tree to symbolise the close cooperation between the two countries in the palm oil sector.

Apart from that, Rutte is also scheduled to deliver a keynote address and participate in a dialogue session with Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad at the 6th Malaysia-The Netherlands Water Dialogue. 

This is Rutte’s second visit to Malaysia after his last visit in 2014.

Last year, The Netherlands was Malaysia’s 14th largest trading partner and the second largest in the European Union, with a trade volume of RM48.04 billion, an increase of 33.4% against RM36.01 billion in 2021.

The Netherlands is also the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil among EU countries with 732,324.54 tonnes.

The working visit is to further strengthen the good relationship between Malaysia and The Netherlands. – Bernama, October 31, 2023.