Peres to pay state visit to the Netherlands

President's visit at the end of September will include meeting with King Willem-Alexander and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Shimon Peres portrait 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Shimon Peres portrait 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
President Shimon Peres will pay an official four-day visit to the Netherlands later this month, the Dutch government announced on Wednesday.
RVD, the Dutch government press office, announced in The Hague that Peres will visit the country from September 29 to October 2, and meet with recently crowned King Willem-Alexander at the Noordeinde palace. He will also meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who will host a luncheon in Peres’s honor at his official residence, the Catshuis in The Hague. Peres will also address the upper and lower houses of parliament during his trip.
The invitation from King William-Alexander to visit the Netherlands was conveyed to Peres by Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, when he met with Peres in Jerusalem in mid- June. The invitation was one of the first by the king to a foreign head of state since he took the throne on April 30.
The visit has been confirmed by Peres’s spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Peres is to due to leave Israel Friday morning for Yalta, Ukraine, for an international conference of presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers, the 10th annual conference of its kind. Peres, a frequent participant at these conferences, was invited by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Peres will take the opportunity to engage in a series of working meetings with various European leaders. Discussions will focus on strengthening bilateral relations, advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons and ridding Syria of chemical weapons. Peres is also expected to attempt to persuade European leaders to lobby against the decision by the European Union to limit its financial aid to Israeli organizations and institutions to only those operating within the 1967 borders.
The president will also be visiting the United States and Mexico in the coming months.