Foreign minister Uri Rosenthal is closing seven embassies in Africa and South and Central America and cutting the Dutch diplomatic corps by 300 jobs or 10%.

The diplomatic mission revision is due to ‘shifting relationships’ in the world and the need to make cuts, the minister says. Economic diplomacy is paramount, the Volkskrant quotes him as saying.
The paper says embassies will close in Cameroon, Zambia, Burkina Faso and Eritrea and the embassy in Tanzania will be downgraded to an economic mission. The embassies in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Uruguay will also shut.
But new economic missions will open in Chengdu in China and Panama, where the Panama Canal offers considerable opportunities for Dutch companies, embassy sources told the paper.