India and the Netherlands are on the same page on invasion of Ukraine: Dutch minister

In an interaction, Hoekstra said, “I have always learned that the situation countries are in and the room that the countries have are also determined by where they are on the globe, who their partners are, and what historic ties they have or might not have.”

“I think it is not up to me to judge from my corner in the world what India should do or should not do,” he said. “I cherish the friendship, I cherish the very clear messaging of (External Affair) Minister (S) Jaishankar.”

“Also, on the issues that I mentioned, I think he and I are on the same page. On Ukraine, when we are talking about rule of law, when we are talking about the atrocities, when we are talking about extreme importance that the international community should attach to territorial integrity, you have other countries. And I cherish this partnership and this friendship.”

Hoekstra said: “Russia doesn’t pay any respect to international law; to sovereignty and territorial independence of another country…absolutely brutal attacks on cities, soldiers, but also on innocent civilians.”

He said: “We have seen the most horrific images of women being raped, children being murdered… what we tried to do with our friends in the European Union, NATO is that, first individual countries tried to seek to support Ukraine with weapons as a European Union. We also will make sure that very tough sanction packages are being applied.”

On China, he said: “We clearly see increased Chinese assertiveness in a number of places in the world. Not in the least in the Indo-Pacific. And I think it is there is a clear imperative for the world to make sure that each and every country subscribe to rule of law, territorial integrity of others, respect geopolitical situation.”