Words of welcome at the Embassy Festival, hotel Des Indes, 6 September 2025

Your Excellencies,

Welcome everyone to hotel Des Indes, welcome to the Embassy Festival here in one of The Hague’s most celebrated spots.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you all for joining in this festival (‘lifting global cultures’).

And may I have your hands for all those before and behind the scenes – and of course Anne, Arthur and Maan – who made this wonderful thirteenth edition possible …

Dear all,

Today we also celebrate the opening of the Spuiplein, the square where The Hague meets amidst townhall, Amare cultural center and several other ventures. Finally on September sixth we celebrate the unofficial birthday of The Hague. Known as ‘Haga’ we were mentioned in an official document for the first time in 1242, nearly 800 years ago.

So, this is a day of celebration and the opening of the Embassy Festival is part of that.

I already took a stroll over the festival site and was very pleased by the looks and smells around me. I’ve met some of you at your stand.

Again, many thanks to your staff, volunteers and PROOOST who organized all this.

With participants from over fifty countries, together you demonstrate The Hague’s reputation as international city of peace and justice, diplomacy, seat of government and heart of the nation’s democracy.

You show us your cultural richness and diversity in this festival, we show us ours on a daily basis.

With inhabitants from over 200 nationalities the world is at home in The Hague.

And as a cosmopolitan city we are at home in the world.

So we are city of peace and justice since 125 years.

With its reputation for international law to provide peaceful solutions and punish criminals, ‘The Hague’ is synonym to the promise of the rule of law.

So much longed for these days.

Peace and justice cannot exist without security.

So we were proud to host the NATO Summit 2025 in June this year and make it a success.

Peace and justice need security, but most of all it needs understanding through the exchange of ideas, cultures, cuisines and music.

The Embassy Festival provides an excellent example of just that every year.

Enjoy, everyone.