Eelco van Kleffens

Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens (November 17, 1894 in Heerenveen – June 17, 1983 in Almoçageme, Portugal) was a politician and diplomat of The Netherlands.

After receiving a Doctor of Laws degree from Leiden University, van Kleffens worked in the Secretariat of the League of Nations. In the early 1930s he was also Secretary-General of the Hague Academy of International Law.

Van Kleffens was appointed the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands in 1939, weeks before World War II began, and was part of the Dutch government in exile over that period. During the war he penned an account of the German invasion named "Juggernaut over Holland" which was circulated within the occupied territory, and he was also one of the original signatories of the Benelux union.

Van Kleffens held the position of foreign minister until the Schermerhorn/Drees cabinet of 1946. Following his resignation from the ministerial position (but not from the cabinet) van Kleffens became the Netherlands' representative on the United Nations Security Council, and in 1947 was appointed the ambassador to the United States. In 1950 he became the ambassador to Portugal, and was bestowed the title of Minister of State, a prestigious honour.

In 1954 van Kleffens was appointed the to the position of President of the United Nations General Assembly for that body's ninth session.

Van Kleffens was the Dutch representative at NATO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from 1956 to 1958, and at the European Coal and Steel Community from 1958 until 1967, after which Van Kleffens retired to Portugal, where he died on June 17, 1983.

References

* [http://www.un.org/ga/55/president/bio09.htm UN biography]

External links

* [http://www.archive.org/details/TheForeignPolicyOfTheNetherlands Speech on foreign policy from 1943]