The Netherlands is becoming a confused and inward-looking country, according to foreign ambassadors in The Hague, the NRC reports on Saturday in a three page feature.

The paper interviewed eight ambassadors from countries with either close ties to the Netherlands or particular relevance for Dutch foreign policy.
The conclusion of the interviews, the paper says, is that the Netherlands has become introspective and frightened of foreigners without any reason. The Netherlands is a country ‘in which politicians and the general public act as if it is dangerous on the streets’, the paper said.
Holidays
‘The Dutch may go abroad on holiday but the country itself is increasingly becoming closed to the rest of the world,’ said British ambassador Paul Arkwright. ‘And that can hurt its international reputation.’
Japan’s ambassador Takashi Koezuka agrees. ‘It is important that the Netherlands keeps looking abroad,’ he said.
‘The Netherlands is looking to the future full of doubt, and does not know which way to go,’ Israel’s ambassador Harry Kney-Tal is quoted as saying.
Pakistan’s ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudry points out that people all over the world ‘loved the Dutch flag’. ‘It stood for solving problems rather than creating them,’ he told the paper.
Euroscepticism
‘I think you are far too busy with yourselves,’ Germany’s ambassador Heinz-Peter Behr said. However, Dutch eurosceptism could lead to an improvement in the way Europe functions, he said.
And Belgian’s ambassador Frank Geerkens says the Netherlands could learn to listen from his country. ‘We Belgians can learn from the Netherlands how to communicate, How to put over a message, how we should talk,’ he said. ‘But what the Netherlands can learn from us is to listen.’
Afghanistan’s ambassador Enaytullah Nabiel told the paper of the time he got lost in his official car and how three girls jumped on their bikes to take him to where he was going. ‘Typical Dutch?’ the paper asked. ‘Now, typical for immigrants,’ the ambassador replied.
India’s ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee said she is unaware of the problems the Netherlands thinks it is facing. ‘I buy my tomatoes from the Moroccan and speak French with him. I pick up my cheese and olives from a Dutch-French couple. And I buy my fish from an Indonesian. I don’t see the problem.’