KUALA LUMPUR: The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte (pix) reiterated the urgency for a humanitarian pause in the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict to enable immediate and necessary aid be delivered into Gaza.
He stressed this is important because that the amount of aid sent through now is critically insufficient, and that it must be massively increased in scale as soon as possible with Rafah opening up further to allow in more humanitarian assistance.
Rutte told this to the media at the Islamic Arts Museum, here on Wednesday, in conjunction with his two-day visit to Malaysia.
The Netherlands is also working on multiple initiatives to enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza, including option of providing aid from the sea through Cyprus.
“Yes, there are many initiatives unfolding at the moment. I hope as soon as possible there is one or two that will be successful,” he said.
More than 8,525 people including children, aid workers and journalists have been killed while at least 22,000 others were injured in Israel’s relentless bombardment on Gaza Strip since Oct 7.
The occupied enclave with a population of 2.3 million people also suffered from total blockade with food, water, medicine and fuel running out, while aid convoys allowed into Gaza have delivered only a fraction of what is needed.
The Dutch Prime Minister said the Israeli forces must stop the killing of Palestinians both in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, underscoring the need for all parties to restart on working towards the two-state solution.
“I think it’s also the only way for both Israel and the Palestinians to survive,” he said.
On his bilateral meeting with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Putrajaya, Rutte said he and the Malaysian Prime Minister had a very good exchange of views on various bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interests, including on Palestine.
He said the Netherlands and Malaysia, taking advantange of their long standing relationship and as influential states in their respective region were keen to work closer together to expand their partnership, especially in the digital domain and high end semi conductor industry.
As part of his visit here, Rutte also met with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof who is also the Plantation and Commodities Minister where they discussed about the current state of the palm oil industry.
This include the Netherlands’ agreement to extend the programmes signed under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and two Dutch non-governmental organisations (NGOs) signed in 2020, to accelerate Malaysia’s aims in relation to sustainable palm oil production for another five years.
The Netherlands also agreed to support Malaysia at the second meeting regarding the European Union’s Deforestation-free Products Regulation (EUDR) this December.
The Netherlands is the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil among European countries and is also one of the countries that has supported Malaysia in issues related to palm oil over the years.
Rutte also delivered a keynote address and participated in a dialogue session with Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad at the 6th Malaysia-The Netherlands Water Dialogue in the effort to combat issues on water.
This is the second visit by Rutte to Malaysia since he became prime minister in 2010. He last visited in 2014. -Bernama
