The Netherlands has appointed a woman as ambassador in Washington for the first time, reports NRC Next on Tuesday.

Renée Jones (55) is in charge of a staff of over a hundred and is expected to push Dutch interests – everything from Afghanistan to the import of Dutch horse sperm – in the American political capital, says the paper.
NRC Next also reveals that Jones was offered the job of integration minister by the right-wing Liberal VVD party in 2003 – a post that was eventually filled by the controversial hardliner Rita Verdonk.
Meanwhile the Volkskrant reports that the Dutch cultural attaché in New York, Kees van Twist, is returning to the Netherlands after just one year to take up a new job as director of the Groninger Museum.
Van Twist wanted to make the diplomatic post in New York independent of the Dutch embassy in Washington but foreign affairs ministry was against the move, the paper says.