南华早报新闻回顾:Will the Netherlands go Dutch on Beijing-led Asian bank? PM Rutte remains tight-lipped: i3h.cn/413
Will the Netherlands go Dutch on Beijing-led Asian bank? PM Rutte remains tight-lipped
Netherlands to help in hunt for fugitives, but PM is coy about AIIB before meeting with Xi
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 28 March, 2015, 3:56am
UPDATED : Saturday, 28 March, 2015, 3:56am
描述:Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte yesterday praised China's international initiatives including the 'One Belt, One Road' economic strategy and its leading role in the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank. Photo: Mimi Lau
图片:2e03f91831c343a33c32a6a4c9df600d_1.jpg
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte yesterday praised China's international initiatives including the '
One Belt, One Road' economic strategy and its leading role in the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank. Photo: Mimi Lau
维基百科: 现任荷兰首相马克·吕特
Mark Rutte,2010年10月14日就任。
荷兰首相(Prime Ministers of the Netherlands),荷兰王国政府首脑,
1848年宪法修订后创立,首相一职称为大臣会议主席,自1945年起改称为大臣主席(Minister-President)。
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte yesterday pledged to work with China in its hunt for fugitive officials - but remained tight-lipped over whether the Netherlands would sign up to the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank.
Speaking to reporters in Shenzhen, Rutte praised China's international initiatives including the 'One Belt, One Road' economic strategy and its leading role in the AIIB, but refused to comment on Dutch involvement ahead of a key meeting with President Xi Jinping today.
"We are looking at [the AIIB] with great interest but the final announcement will be made after my meeting with President Xi," Rutte said.
Rutte is to meet Xi today at the
Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province.
"China taking on the initiative is a good thing in itself," Rutte said, but he would not say whether he saw the AIIB as a competitor to European institutions.
He said the Netherlands would cooperate with Beijing in "an open manner" in its pursuit of corrupt officials who had fled overseas, but did not specifically mention Operation Skynet, which is targeting the financial channels fugitives use to transfer illicit assets abroad.
Rutte has been in China since Tuesday, joined by Environment Minister Wilma Mansveld and more than 70 Dutch business leaders in a trade mission to Shanghai and Shenzhen. The visit ends tomorrow.
The Netherlands is China's third-largest trade partner in Europe.
Last year, mutual trade was almost
€44 billion (HK$373 billion).
There are about 1,000 Dutch businesses in China.
Rutte, who arrived in Shenzhen on Thursday evening, said he had visited major technological companies such as Huawei and drone maker DJI and that the delegation had been "surprised" and "fascinated" with China's economic transformation.
"Ten years ago, we looked at China as a nation with low wages producing high quantities but now it's producing high technology and high quality," Rutte said.
He highlighted DJI: "It's a producer of drones with 3,000 employees and … its owner is only 35-years-old - that tells you something about the city and how young the population is."
Rutte said the trade mission had been a success as 35 agreements had been signed in Shanghai and 19 in Shenzhen between Dutch businesses and universities and Chinese counterparts.
He said it was a logical next step for China to lower its growth target as it moved from manufacturing quantity to quality and dealt with pollution and food safety. He said Dutch technology could help it in this transition.
In regards to a row over a Buddha statue containing the mummified body of a monk, which is held by a collector in Holland but claimed by China as a stolen artefact, he deferred to the courts.
"
I understand all the emotion behind it is very complicated because it's a very special Buddha with a monk inside," Rutte said. "
It's difficult for a government to comment but a matter that has to be dealt with in a court of justice."