Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit President Donald Trump on July 18 at the White House for a bilateral conversation. Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok, who will attend the State Department’s second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom earlier in the day, will also be present. They will discuss the excellent ties between the Netherlands and the US, developments in international trade, and cooperation in defense and security.
At the White House, an American flag that came ashore on Utah Beach on D-Day will be given to the American people by the two Dutchmen who own the flag.
Preceding the visit at the White House, Prime Minister Rutte will deliver a speech on the multilateral world order at the Atlantic Council, an international policy think tank in Washington, and will meet with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Trade mission
After the program in Washington, Prime Minister Rutte will travel to Boston to lead a trade mission with Minister for Medical Care and Sports Bruno Bruins; Hans de Boer, president of VNO-NCW, the largest employers’ organization in the Netherlands, and Henk Ovink, special envoy for international water affairs.
The mission, in which 87 Dutch companies will participate, lasts from July 17-19 and focuses on life sciences and health, artificial intelligence and robotics, and climate resilience.
On July 18, Prime Minister Rutte will attend a trade dinner with the delegation, during which contracts and memorandums of understanding will be signed between American and Dutch companies and knowledge institutions.
On July 19, Prime Minister Rutte will visit organizations that are active in the fields of life sciences and health, artificial intelligence and robotics, and climate resilience, including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT and the Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he will participate in a workshop on climate resilience.
Finally, the Prime Minister will visit the Museum of Fine Arts, which will open the Center for Netherlandish Art in 2020, and the mission will formally end.
Minister Bruins
Minister for Medical Care and Sport Bruins will be in Boston, where he will speak at seminars organized by American and Dutch companies involved in biotech and e-health. He will also visit several knowledge institutions and Boston Children’s Hospital, where companies cooperate to treat young children with rare diseases.
Philips will inform him on the activities in the field of robot-guided surgery and patient follow-up systems. Minister Bruins will also be present at the trade dinner and the conclusion of the trade mission at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Preceding his program in Boston, Minister Bruins will be in Canada on July 16, where he will speak with Canadian ministers Kennedy and Blair on medicine prices, the opioid crisis, and the experience of Canada on legalization of cannabis for private use.
On July 17, Minister Bruins will meet with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in Washington. In these conversations, too, opioids and medication prices will be central.
Read more about the mission or follow it on Twitter, #NLinBoston.
Contacts: Ron Linker, Ronald.linker@minbuza.nl / 202-274-2631 or Carla Bundy, cy.bundy@minbuza.nl / 202-274-2632
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