WorldStage Newsonline– Nigeria and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further deepen bilateral ties between the two countries.
The MoU was focused on cooperation in the field of politics, economics and migration/consular between Nigeria and Netherlands.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Malam Yusuf Tuggar and the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Trade Development Cooperation, Geoffrey Van Leeuwen, signed the MoU on Monday in Abuja.
Tuggar represented by the Director, Office of the Minister, Amb. Samson Itegboje expressed appreciation to the people of Netherlands for their support to Nigeria in different forum.
Tuggar said, “This political consultation is also one of such platforms, where we have to discuss bilateral issues on trade and investment, and on migration, agriculture, water resources, and the consular.
“It is a very robust platform and relationship we have i hope that after now we will go into all the conversations and then, we will sign the MoU.”
Leeuwen commended Nigerian for the warm reception accorded the Netherlands delegation, saying “it is such a warm welcome to me, the minister and the whole delegation”.
According to Leeuwen, since the delegation’s arrival we have visited a farm where Dutch institute and young farmers worked together, it is such a wonderful start.
“Our relationship is getting much deeper and longer in agricultural project. From outside we are your biggest trading partner, in Africa you are the biggest economy.
“I think the number three investor, but overtime the number five investor into Nigeria. We are also your top three trading partner and last year we reached not less than Eight billion dollars, in terms of bilateral trade.
“We are long term partners, we have decided to further strengthen our relationship in a more broader field, indeed migration, political, regional and all the aspect of the mutual relationship.
“We are really here again today to strengthen that relationship to make it even deeper and stronger than it is today, because you the key player in Africa and our key partner.
“So, we are going to work on that and build on that,” Leeuwen said.
Mr Eric Burg, Minister for Migration said, “my colleague started with farm, I started with NAPTIP and to talk about human trafficking is very important, especially about ways to strengthen our bonds.
“To fight human traffickers and to defeat them, we are also here to talk about migration in all kind of ways, because we are working closely together: why not we try to get it better,” he said.
