- Ben Bot
Infobox_Politician
name =Ben Bot
width =235px
height =288px
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birth_date =21 November 1937
birth_place =Batavia,Dutch East Indies
residence =
death_date =
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office = DutchMinister of Foreign Affairs
salary =
term_start =3 December 2003
term_end =22 February 2007
predecessor =Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
successor =Maxime Verhagen
party =Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA)
religion =
constituency =
majority =
spouse =
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website =
footnotes = Dr. Bernard Rudolf (Ben) Bot (born21 November 1937 ) was a Dutch Minister ofForeign affairs between 2003 and 2007. He succeededHans van den Broek as president of the international relations institute "Clingendael".Biography
Bot was born in Batavia,
Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). He studied law at and obtained his PhD. fromLeiden University inLeiden , attended theHague Academy of International Law and went toHarvard Law School inCambridge, Massachusetts in theUSA .He served in the
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 2002, including postings at the Permanent Representation of The Netherlands to theEuropean Community from 1964 to 1970, the Netherlandsembassy inBuenos Aires to 1973, and at the embassy in former East-Berlin in the DDR. In the period 1976-1982 he worked in The Netherlands for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, after which he was Deputy Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) inBrussels .From 1986-1989, Bot was
Ambassador of the Netherlands toTurkey . He served as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague until 1992, when he was appointed as Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to theEuropean Union in Brussels. He held that post for an unusually long period of 10 years.On
3 December 2003 , Bot succeeded current NATO Secretary-GeneralJaap de Hoop Scheffer as Minister of Foreign Affairs in thesecond Balkenende cabinet . Bot is a member of theChristen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) party. He was succeeded as foreign minister byMaxime Verhagen in thefourth Balkenende cabinet . Currently, Bot is a partner of the Praaning Meines Consultancy Group and holds various public posts including President of theNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and Chairman of the Board of theClingendael Institute in The Hague.In 2007, Ben Bot was quoted as stating that Muslims lack a tolerance "gene". In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper "Correio Braziliense": "We always have been a tolerant country, and we still are. You have to look at the facts: 10 percent of our population comes from Muslim countries. They have gone on to become Dutch citizens, but they have different "genes" from ours. They are less tolerant". The Dutch foreign ministry later stressed he was misinterpreted, and that he was only referring to the intolerance of the small minority of extremists within the Muslim community in the Netherlands. [ [http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/culture/?id=19226 Middle East Online ] ]
Bot was interviewed by the "
NRC Handelsblad " newspaper in December 2007, where he reiterated his 2005 position that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a mistake, and that he had to "redress" his comment in 2005 after heavy pressure from prime ministerJan Peter Balkenende . In response, Balkenende said that he would have asked Bot to step down if he did not revise his position at the time. [cite news | title = ‘Het is zoals Amerika vindt dat het is’ | url = http://www.nrc.nl/digitaleeditie/20071208/public/pages/05006/articles/NRC-20071208-05006001.html | publisher = NRC Handelsblad | date =2007-12-08 | accessdate = 2007-12-08] [cite news | title = Balkenende: 'Bot had moeten aftreden' | url = http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article851483.ece/Balkenende_Bot_had_moeten_aftreden | publisher = NRC Handelsblad | date =2007-12-08 | accessdate = 2007-12-08]Notes
ee also
*
Foreign relations of the Netherlands External links
* [http://www.minbuza.nl/en/ministry,ministers/minister_of_foreign_affairs___bernard_r_bot.html Official profile]
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