 | |
 France |  Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of France, The Hague | Embassy of the Netherlands, Paris |
| Envoy | |
| AmbassadorFrançois Alabrune | AmbassadorJan Versteeg |
France–Netherlands relations are theinterstate andbilateral relations betweenFrance and theNetherlands. The two countries notably share aborder division in theCaribbean island ofSaint Martin, to which the northern part of the island is a Frenchoverseas collectivity known as theCollectivity of Saint Martin, while the southern part of the island is a Dutchconstituent country known asSint Maarten. Relations between the two countries date back to the 17th and 18th centuries when aconflict led to the transformation of theDutch Republic to theBatavian Republic and eventually theKingdom of Holland. The two countries currently enjoy close cultural and economic relations.[1] Both nations are members of theOECD andOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, as well as founding members of theEuropean Union,NATO, and theUnited Nations.
Close ties between France and the Netherlands already existed in the lateMiddle Ages. Large parts of what is now the Netherlands belonged to theBurgundian domain at that time, ruled by theHouse of Valois-Burgundy, acadet branch of the French royalHouse of Valois.French was used as the court and cultural language at the court of theDukes of Burgundy, who ruled both France and the Netherlands in the 15th century.[2]
From the 1560s, France and the Dutch Republic considered themselves to be allies until 1668 when the Dutch Republic formed theTriple Alliance with theKingdom of England and theSwedish Empire to revolt againstLouis XIV of France's expansion in theWar of Devolution in support of theSpanish Empire, whom France succeeded as the strongest nation in Europe.[3][4] Feeling betrayed by the Dutch Republic, Louis realized that the Dutch Republic would hinder France in conquering theSpanish Netherlands.[5]
TheDutch East India Company (VOC) established its presence in the region which expanded to form theDutch East Indies, a territory largely corresponding to modern-dayIndonesia. The capital of the Dutch East Indies wasBatavia, which is now Jakarta, as the groundwork for Dutch colonization.
In 1672, Louis was able to convince the Kingdom of England and the Swedish Empire to fight against the Dutch Republic, as Louis had agreed to financially support England.[6] England has already fought in two wars against the Dutch Empire (theFirst andSecond Anglo-Dutch Wars in 1652–1654 and 1665–1667, respectively), prior to their agreement in the Triple Alliance.
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TheFranco-Dutch War occurred in 1672–1678, shortly after France convinced England and Sweden to switch sides, disbanding the Triple Alliance. 1672 is considered by the Dutch as the "Disaster Year" (Rampjaar).
Supporting Spain, the Dutch Republic was joined by theMargraviate of Brandenburg and theHoly Roman Empire, while the French army expanded through its alliance with the prince-bishops ofMünster andCologne. Prior to the French army's arrival into theRhine, England had declaredwar on the Dutch Republic, but their efforts to coordinate with the French navy for attacks on the Dutch fleet ended in failure. By June 1672, France had established fortifications within the Rhine, includingRheinberg,Wesel, andUtrecht, and Münsterans began attacking the north, particularlyGroningen. The following month, William of Nassau (the laterWilliam III) was acclaimedstadtholder.[7] Upon arrival at theLower Rhine region, the French army began retreating after witnessing the Imperial and Brandenburgian armies. By December, the Dutch were able to liberate a number of occupied territories in the north after the French had retreated while crossing theDutch Water Line. However, in late 1673, the French army succeeded in capturingBonn. In February 1674, England and the Dutch Republic, along with the prince-bishops of Münster and Cologne, signed theTreaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In August 1674, the Dutch-German-Spanish army entered the territory of northern France, under the command ofWilliam III of Orange, where they were met by the French army commanded byLouis II de Condé. InSeneffe, Condé blocked the Dutch-German-Spanish army by detaching about 500 horsemen to keep the Dutch vanguard busy, surrounding the Dutch-German-Spanish army and resulting to a tactical French victory. This became known as theBattle of Seneffe.[8] In 1675, the Swedish armyinvadedBrandenburg. In March 1678, the French army had entered the Spanish Netherlands and besiegedGhent.[9]
Later that year until 1679, theTreaties of Nijmegen were signed between France, the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Münster and Sweden, ending the Franco-Dutch War with theFranche-Comté and the Spanish Netherlands belonging to France, making them Europe's strongest power. The war sparked the rivalry between William III, who later became King of England as a result of theGlorious Revolution, and Louis XIV, which intensified in the subsequentNine Years' War (1688–97) and theWar of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), both of which the Dutch Republic supported the coalition against the Kingdom of France. Unfortunately for the Dutch Republic, the war also resulted in the decline of the republic's dominance in overseas trade.[10]
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In 1795,French revolutionary troops marched into the Netherlands and ended the old republic. With French help, theBatavian Republic (1795–1806) was established as asatellite state of France. In 1806,Napoleon Bonaparte appointed his brotherLouis as King of Holland; in 1810, the northern Netherlands were finally incorporated directly into theFrench Empire. After Napoleon's fall, the country regained its independence in 1815 at theCongress of Vienna. The union of the northern and southern Netherlands (today'sBelgium) to form theUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands was intended to serve as a buffer state to prevent further French expansion to the north.[11] However, this arrangement proved short-lived: in 1830, Belgium split from the Netherlands in arevolution supported by France, which came to the aid of the Belgian revolutionaries againstDutch attempts to regain control.[12]
After Belgium's secession, relations between France and the reduced Netherlands were largely free of tension, although France was not the focus of Dutch foreign policy in the 19th century. France began its colonization ofVietnam in the mid-19th century, initially establishing a colony calledFrench Cochinchina, which will later form itself asFrench Indochina.Saigon became the capital ofCochinchina. The Netherlands concentrated its diplomatic efforts more on theGerman Empire (which was formed in 1871) and Great Britain, while there were relatively few direct contacts with France. In theFirst World War (1914–1918), the Netherlands remained neutral and kept its distance from France and theEntente.[11] In the interwar period, the Dutch continued to pursue a policy ofneutrality. Despite Dutch neutrality, both countries were occupied by theWehrmacht in 1940. During theSecond World War, there were no official diplomatic contacts—the Netherlands was occupied by Germany as theReichskommissariat Niederlande, and the French government was replaced by the collaboratingVichy regime in the south and directGerman occupation in the north, so that direct relations were not resumed until afterliberation in 1944/45.
From 1945 onwards, afterWorld War II, both colonies were decolonized, with theDutch East Indies gaining independence asIndonesia in 1949, andFrench Indochina being dissolved in 1954 asVietnam after theFirst Indochina War. The framework of Franco-Dutch relations changed fundamentally: the Netherlands abandoned itsisolationist policy of neutrality and became actively involved in the new Western alliances,NATO (founded in 1949) and theEuropean Communities (from 1957). France and the Netherlands were among the six founding members of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and later theEuropean Economic Community (EEC). They remained close partners in the first post-war decades, but differences of opinion also emerged. UnderCharles De Gaulle, France repeatedly blocked the Netherlands' efforts to bring the United Kingdom into the EEC in the 1960s and rejected further supranational integration of the Community, leading to conflicts with The Hague.[11]
In the decades that followed, relations returned to normal. From the 1970s onwards, France gradually returned to NATO's integrated command structures (full reentry took place in 2009) and, from 1973, also accepted British membership of the EEC, while the Netherlands now gave greater support toEuropean integration. However, in 2005, referendums in both countries rejected the plannedEU Constitutional Treaty. In April 2023, the governments of France and the Netherlands issued a joint statement emphasizing their historic friendship and announcing plans to further deepen bilateral relations and cooperation in Europe.[13] In 2023, both sides also resolved a centuries-old dispute over the sale of their mutual border on the Caribbean island ofSaint-Martin.[14]
On 23 March 1648, theFrench Kingdom and the Dutch Republic signed theTreaty of Concordia atopMount Concordia, in which both agreed to divide the island ofSaint Martin into their own territories – the French Kingdom owning the northern part of the island and the Dutch Republic owning the southern part of island.[15]
On 17 May 1994, the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands signed theFranco-Dutch treaty on Saint Martin border controls inParis, aimed at improvingborder control at the two airports on Saint Martin, namely thePrincess Juliana International Airport at the DutchSint Maarten and theL'Espérance Airport at the FrenchCollectivity of Saint Martin. The treaty was ratified on 1 August 2007. Among the provisions of the treaty is a requirement for a visa or a landing permit for both the Dutch and French sides if a foreigner is to visit the island of Saint Martin. However, the provisions have not been implemented.[citation needed]
On 1 January 2009, the population of Saint Martin was 77,741 inhabitants – 40,917 living on the Dutch Sint Maarten and 36,824 living on the French Collectivity of Saint Martin.[16][17]
France is the Netherlands' fourth-largest investor, third-largest exporter, and sixth-largest supplier,[1] to which the Netherlands is also France's seventh-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer.[18][19] According to theFrench Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, about 400 French companies in the industries ofservice,metallurgy, andagriculture maintain operations in the Netherlands, includingAccorHotels,Air France–KLM,Atos,Capgemini,Engie,Saint-Gobain,Sodexo,Thales Group, andTotal S.A. France and the Netherlands have agreed to establish synergies to further enhance bilateral cooperation between the countries' economies, notably the Air France–KLM merger between theirflag carriers (Air France andKLM) in 2004 and theDanone takeover ofNumico in 2007.[20] The ministry also stated that between 1993 and 2008, Dutch companies maintaining operations in France, includingAkzoNobel,DSM,DSV,Heineken International,Royal Dutch Shell,Philips,SHV Holdings,TNT Express, andVopak, contributed to the creation of 15,000 jobs in the country.[21]
The last few years there has been an increasing exchange in the field of mobility between France and the Netherlands. Two venues that are particularly popular are Autonomy(Paris) & Intertraffic(Amsterdam).
These exchanges have been facilitated by the embassies, Business France, Choose Paris Region, Amsterdam Trade & Invest and the Dutch Trade Agency(RVO).
France and the Netherlands have many cultural ties. Over the centuries, there have been mutual influences and waves of migration: in the 17th century, between 50,000 and 75,000 FrenchHuguenots fled to theCalvinist Netherlands, enriching the economy, crafts, and culture there.[22] At the same time, Dutch scholars and artists were active in France—for example, the philosopherRené Descartes spent two decades in the Netherlands, where he wrote most of his works.[11] The French language played a prominent role in the Netherlands until well into the 19th century: French was long the preferred language of education and the upper classes, and from 1863 it was even a compulsory subject in Dutch schools.[2]
From 1957 until its closure in 2013, theInstitut Néerlandais in Paris promotedDutch art and culture and was one of the oldestcultural centers in the city.[23] Its counterpart, the Institut Français, has branches inAmsterdam andGroningen that promoteFrench art and culture.[24] A number of Frenchresearch institutes, including theCentre national de la recherche scientifique, theInstitut national de la recherche agronomique,IFREMER, and theFrench Institute of Health and Medical Research, have signed agreements with Dutch research institutes to enhance collaborative capabilities. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development has also stated that Frenchlegal culture is being promoted at theInternational Court of Justice inThe Hague.[25]
Both countries are among the twelve founding members of NATO (1949) and already worked closely together in the Western defense alliance during the Cold War. After the end of the East-West conflict in 1990, French and Dutch armed forces participated side by side in many international missions, such as UN and NATO operations in theBalkans andAfghanistan. To this day, the Netherlands considers the US and the Atlantic Alliance to be the cornerstones of its security policy, while France has traditionally placed greater emphasis on independent European defense. However, both countries now support joint EU initiatives such as thePermanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) to strengthen European security.[26] In 2019, France and the Netherlands renewed a bilateral declaration of intent to deepen defense cooperation; in 2023, both governments announced that they would conclude a formal framework agreement for more intensive cooperation in the field of defense and security.[13]
According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, France and the Netherlands have cooperated with each other in theprohibition of drugs since 1995 through the leadership of a high-level bilateral group. The two countries hold annual meetings in The Hague and Paris.[27]
In the year 2000, French PresidentJacques Chirac and his wifeBernadette brought a state visit to the Netherlands.[28] They were received byQueen Beatrix and Prime MinisterWim Kok inAmsterdam.[28] Afterwards, Chirac and Kok went to The Hague for a visit to theMauritshuis.[28]
French PresidentFrançois Hollande visited the Netherlands on 20 January 2014, where he met withKingWillem-Alexander,Queen Máxima, andPrime MinisterMark Rutte. He also met with theHouse of Representatives and theSenate, where he addressed the diplomatic and political ties between the two countries.[29]
In 2016,King Willem-Alexander together withQueen Maxima brought a state visit to France, where they were received by PresidentHollande in theÉlysée Palace.[28]
On 11 April 2023, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron and his wifeBrigitte paid a 2-daystate visit to the Netherlands.[30] They were received byKing Willem-Alexander andQueen Maxima at theRoyal Palace of Amsterdam.[31] Afterwards, Macron went to The Hague, where he gave a speech about his vision on the future ofEurope.[30][32] The next day, Macron and Prime MinisterMark Rutte went to theRijksmuseum to see an exhibition about Dutch painterJohannes Vermeer.[30]
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