Sigrid Kaag

Sigrid Kaag (2018)

Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag (born November 2, 1961 in Rijswijk ) is a Dutch politician of the left-liberal D66 . From May 2021 to September 2021 she was Foreign Minister in the Rutte III cabinet . From October 2017 to August 2021 she was Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. She was previously a diplomat at the United Nations (UN).

Life

Kaag studied Arabic in Leiden and soon moved to the American University in Cairo , where she obtained her Bachelor in Middle East Studies. She received a Masters in International Relations at the University of Exeter and at St Antony's College of Oxford University . Kaag also studied at the École nationale d'administration in Paris and completed the foreign relations course at the Clingersael Institute in The Hague .

Kaag worked from 1988 to 1990 at Shell International in London and from 1990 to 1993 in the UN Political Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. She then held various international functions. From 1994 to 1997 she was Program Manager and Head of Donor Relations at the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) in Jerusalem . She then worked from 1998 to 2004 at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva . From 2004 to 2005 Kaag was a UN advisor in Khartoum and Nairobi . She then continued her career at the UN Children's Fund UNICEF , where she held various functions from 2005 to 2010. She was Deputy Head of Program Directorate and then Chief of Staff in New York and Head of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Directorate in Amman . After moving to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York, she became Vice Secretary-General.

From October 2013 to September 2014 Kaag headed the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to destroy Syrian chemical weapons as UN Under-Secretary-General . After completing this mission, in 2015 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General in Lebanon to be responsible for all United Nations activities in that country, in particular for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 . In 2015 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter. In 2016 she received the Wateler Peace Prize of the Dutch Carnegie Foundation for her commitment and the results of her work in the Middle East.

On October 26, 2017, Kaag was appointed Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the third Rutte cabinet. From February 13 to March 7, 2018, Kaag temporarily took over the duties of Foreign Minister following Halbe Zijlstra's resignation . Due to changes within the outgoing Rutte III cabinet, Kaag was appointed Foreign Minister on May 25, 2021. She combined this office with her office as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation until August 10, 2021. Her successor as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation was another former diplomat, Tom de Bruijn . On September 16, 2021, Parliament passed a motion of disapproval against them. A majority accused her of failing to complete the evacuation mission from the Afghan capital, Kabul . In response to the motion for disapproval, Kaag announced that she would submit her resignation as minister. Since then, Tom de Bruijn has been running the Foreign Ministry on a transitional basis.

She was nominated by D66 as the top candidate for the parliamentary election on March 17, 2021 .

Private

Kaag has been married since 1993 and has four children. She has lived in Geneva , Amman (Jordan), New York and Beirut (Lebanon) , among others . She speaks six languages including Spanish and Arabic .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Sigrid Kaag open 70e empty Buitenlandse Betrekkingen. In: Clingersael. September 17, 2015, accessed February 15, 2018 (Dutch).
↑ Dutch woman is supposed to lead chemical weapons mission in Syria. In: ORF.at . October 14, 2013, accessed February 15, 2018 .
↑ Dutch Foreign Minister - Resignation after chaos in Kabul. In: Tagesschau.de . September 17, 2021, accessed September 17, 2021 .

personal data
SURNAME	Kaag, Sigrid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kaag, Sigrid Agnes Maria
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Dutch politician (D66) and diplomat
BIRTH DATE	November 2nd, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rijswijk , South Holland

[1] Sigrid Kaag open 70e empty Buitenlandse Betrekkingen. In: Clingersael. September 17, 2015, accessed February 15, 2018 (Dutch).

[2] Dutch woman is supposed to lead chemical weapons mission in Syria. In: ORF.at . October 14, 2013, accessed February 15, 2018 .

[3] Dutch Foreign Minister - Resignation after chaos in Kabul. In: Tagesschau.de . September 17, 2021, accessed September 17, 2021 .