A warm welcome to Australia to Frank van Beuningen, the new Consul-General of the Netherlands in Sydney. Frank arrived in Sydney last month. Before his posting Down Under, he worked as a diplomat on special assignments and had several postings, among others in Afghanistan, Germany, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. Besides working on economic diplomacy and trade promotion, Frank has dealt extensively with security policy, counter-terrorism and human rights issues.

In the Netherlands Frank was the co-founder and later director (1998 – 2002) of the Advisory Council on International Affairs, a think tank that advises the Dutch government on a regular basis on all aspects of foreign and security policy. He has a degree in international affairs from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Frank is married to Jennie and together they have two adult children.

After having been in Sydney for nearly two weeks, Frank says “he feels like a dog with two tails”. He states: “I am looking forward to working with the team on the optimising of consular services and the potential for Dutch companies to partner with Australian counterparts to achieve sustainable trade and investment for both our countries. I cannot wait to get to know the Dutch community. I am very interested in its history”.

More information can be found here:

Dutch: www.nederlandwereldwijd.nl/landen/australie

English: www.netherlandsworldwide.nl/countries/australia