KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte arrived here today for a two-day working visit to Malaysia.

The special aircraft carrying Rutte and delegation landed at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, here at 3.35 this evening.

The arrival of Rutte was received by Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin and the Dutch prime minister later inspected a static guard of honour mounted by 28 officers and men from the First Battalion of the Royal Ranger Regiment (Ceremonial Infantry) led by Captain Amirul Akmal Osman.

Rutte is scheduled to hold a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tomorrow where the two leaders would evaluate the progress of bilateral ties especially cooperation in trade, investment, cultural exchange, palm oil, agriculture and agricommodity and discuss the issue of Islamphobia.

In the meeting, both leaders are expected to exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Rutte will also hold a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof who is also the minister of plantation and commodities and take part in a symbolic planting of an oil palm tree to symbolise the close cooperation between the two countries in the palm oil sector.

Apart from that, Rutte is also scheduled to deliver a keynote address and participate 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 after the last visit to this country in 2014.

In 2022, the Netherlands is Malaysia’s 14th largest trading partner and the second largest in the European Union (EU) with a trade volume of RM48.04 billion, an increase of 33.4 per cent compared to RM36.01 billion (US$8.68 billion) in 2021.

The Netherlands is also the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil among EU countries with 732,324.54 tonnes.

The working visit is to further strengthen the good relationship between Malaysia and the Netherlands. — Bernama