Middle East Trip Timmermans

On Sunday Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans leaves for a four-day trip through the Middle East. His first destination wil be Tunesia in North Africa. Timmermans will also visit Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Turkey. The goal of the trip is to strengten the relationships.

The minister is Sunday and Monday in Tunisia. Timmermans will speak, among others, with journalists, bloggers and hackers. He also holds the opening speech of the Third Freedom Online Conference, a meeting of a number of countries that are committed to freedom on the Internet. On the agenda is further a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Jarandi.

settlements

Monday night, he travels to Israel. There he speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will insist on including resumption of the peace talks and stop the construction of settlements. The next day he meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The last country to be visited on Wednesday is Turkey. The Minister visits in Turkey a camp with Syrian refugees and he will visit the Dutch Patriot mission in Adana. The two Patriot systems and about 250 Dutch soldiers protect the Turks against attacks by ballistic missiles from Syria.