Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands

Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Van Hollen, and Congressman Pete Hoekstra held a brief press availability this afternoon with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands before their meeting in the Capitol. Below are their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon. It is indeed an official and personal pleasure for me to welcome the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Capitol of the United States.

I'm pleased to be joined by our colleagues, Mr. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland and Peter Hoekstra from Michigan - both of them are Dutch American - Peter having been born in the Netherlands. And we join in welcoming the Prime Minister, Mistress Ambassador, and the distinguished official party that is accompanying the Prime Minster.

It gives us the opportunity to say thank you - thank you to the Netherlands on this 400th anniversary on your participation in making America a great country from the start, your leadership in making the world a safer place by your participation and leadership, not only in Afghanistan, but in Iraq, as part of NATO.

I particularly want to salute the Prime Minister for his important work on climate change, both his leadership in the Netherlands, in the EU, and in the global economy. Many of us were very pleased with the assistance that the Netherlands provided to Katrina in terms of engineering advice, at that very important, vulnerable time for us.

And we look forward to working with the Prime Minister, hearing his views on international security, climate change, and other issues of concern to both of our countries. We salute the importance of the relationship between the Netherlands and the United States. And while Mr. Hoekstra and Mr. Van Hollen have Dutch grandparents - and I can't make that claim - I can claim to have Dutch grandchildren - and they're adorable, by the way.

In any event, Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of all the Members of Congress, I am delighted to officially welcome you to the Capitol, salute you for your leadership, and look forward to your comments.

Thank you.

Prime Minister Balkenende. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. It is really a great honor to be here. And I appreciate it very much that you give me the opportunity to be here in this heart of democracy.

It's fantastic to be here in this beautiful House. I'm also happy that you invited both Congressmen - Mr. Van Hollen and Mr. Hoekstra, to be here. So I must also say that I really feel at home, because I also know that your son-in-law is Dutch.

And this is a great moment. As you already said, this year we celebrate the 400 year ties between the Netherlands and the United States, more specific, the region of Manhattan, New York. But we feel that it's more than only that. It's a history of friendship, a history of very good relations, and a history of shared values - values like freedom, democracy, and human rights. And I'm aware of the fact that if we want to solve the problems of today, we have to work together.

And you mentioned issues like climate change - we can think about energy. When we talk about an issue that's on your agenda now - the health situation, the health reform - that's also our agenda. And I'm aware of the fact that if you're going to make success finding solutions, it's important that we have contact with each other.

So for me it's an honor to be here, I want to thank you for your hospitality, and as I said, I already feel at home. Thank you very much.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much. I hope you know, Mr. Prime Minister, how excellently you're represented in the United States by the Ambassador, Madam Ambassador. And my colleagues, would you like to add a word of welcome?

Congressman Van Hollen. Well let me just briefly join the Speaker, and my colleague Pete Hoekstra in welcoming you, Mr. Prime Minister. As you said, our countries have shared a great friendship over time built on shared values, and we want to work together with you to make sure we continue to strengthen and deepen those ties, and your Ambassador's done a wonderful job here. And we look forward to continuing to strengthen and further develop that relationship across all fronts.

So thank you very much for you visit here and we look forward to many years of continued friendship.

Congressman Hoekstra. It's a great pleasure to have the Prime Minister here of course, especially for myself. I was born in the Netherlands; my parents emigrated when I was 3 years old. And they came to a country that they felt would provide them with the hope and the opportunity, and you know 36 years later, they saw their son get sworn into the Congress of the Untied States. But throughout that time we've had a great relationship with our family in the Netherlands, we've maintained strong roots to the Netherlands, but also in my professional capacity, we've developed a great partnership with our friends in the Netherlands.

Working on the national security issues, I've met with your intelligence folks on a number of times getting insights and getting other perspectives on how to be effective and how to keep the Netherlands safe, now to keep Europe safe, and how to keep America safe. And they've been a great partner and provided some very, very beneficial insights.

So we've been tied together now for over 400 years. We have an authentic Dutch windmill in Holland, Michigan - I don't think you'd have the opportunity to visit…

Prime Minister Balkenende. Yes.

Congressman Hoekstra. Well good, we need that in writing. You have a number of witnesses. The Mayor of Holland will be excited to hear that.

But earlier this year, we had the Ambassador there, and we're just so appreciative of the strong ties at so many different levels between our two countries. Thank you and it's great to have you here.

Speaker Pelosi.Mr. Prime Minister, I just wanted to make one more comment. And that is about 10 years ago, or longer, I had the opportunity to be part of a Congressional Delegation to accompany President Clinton to the Netherlands for the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. We were at The Hague for the beginning of it, but what was really emotional for us was the reception that our delegation, especially the President, received in Rotterdam. Where people who were very young, maybe children in grade school or teenagers, at the time of the Marshall Plan told their story and what it meant to their families. It was a time to remember the courage of the people of The Netherlands during the war, and also the friendship between our two countries.

That was a fond memory and a strong bond, so in the spirit of that friendship of many years, including starting 400 years ago, we welcome the Prime Minister to the Capitol and look forward to our conversation.