SOCIETY 384

AMBASSADORS
THE NETHERLANDS
Coming full circle
Since August 2023, H.E. Peter Potman has been Ambassador of the Netherlands to
Austria and the International Organizations in Vienna. SOCIETY spoke with him about
his career path and priorities as Ambassador. INTERVIEW BY TANJA TAUCHHAMMER
46
“Through this increasing
disorder
in the world,
the cracks and
fold lines are
becoming more
violent.”
What are you looking forward to the most as an
Ambassador? What will be the main focus in your
work here?
I would like to start by giving a little bit of background
information about myself and the situation
here for the Dutch Embassy in Austria. I have
been working for the foreign service since 1988,
which means that I started back in the days of the
Cold War.
My first posting was in Beijing, where I also met
my wife, a Dutch Sinologist. Thereafter, I worked
in the Asia department, and then went to Geneva
to work in the field of disarmament. We negotiated
the nuclear test ban treaty (CTBT). Today, the
CTBTO is situated here in Vienna. Now I am the
Permanent Representative to that organization,
which I helped found by negotiating the Treaty in
the middle of the 1990s.
After that, I worked in The Hague, partially in the
area of drugs and crime control, which is also covered
by the UNODC in Vienna. As a junior officer,
I was working on those subjects and now as an
Ambassador, I am dealing with them once more.
Subsequently, I worked in the field of nonproliferation
and nuclear affairs, which is covered by
the IAEA, also a Vienna based organization. Then
we went to Washington, where I was
working as Political Counsellor at the
Embassy.
From Washington DC, I went back to
The Hague to work as the Head of the
America department. In 2011, we went
back to China where I served as Consul
General in Shanghai. Coming back
to The Hague, I became Director of the
Asia and Oceania Department and then
Deputy Vice Minister for Foreign Economic
Relations. Now I am serving as
Ambassador here in Vienna. I am telling you this,
because the things that I am responsible for now,
to a great extent, I already did a long time ago,
some even before I became a diplomat.
How has the world changed since you joined the
foreign service in 1988?
After the Cold War, during what I call the Pax
Americana, the USA basically was a single superpower.
China was still upcoming and Russia was
cooperative during the 1990s. Back then, the world
was a very positive one, for the Netherlands it
was easy, we could rely on NATO for our security.
We could build a stable economy inside the
European Union and the United Nations was very
much at the center of the world order. Everybody
played the game. And what I have seen in the last
ten years is, that this world order, the Pax Americana,
is crumbling, mostly because of the rise of
China, which is challenging the USA and Europe.
Through this increasing disorder in the world,
the cracks and fold lines are becoming more violent.
I think these are the big changes that we
have to go through, where we as Europeans have
to get our act together. We have to become more
geostrategic and ramp up our defense spending
because this is the world we live in. As I have dealt
also with the economy a great deal, it is also very
important that as European Union, we establish
more autonomy when it comes to our technology.
Could you tell us about the historical ties between
Austria and the Netherlands?
Austria is a great place and our residence has been
here, in the Strauss Schlössl, for such a long time.
We have rented our residence from the Strauss
family since 1949. The interesting thing is, that the
plot where the house has been built on was part
of the Botanical Garden which was founded in the
eighteenth century by the Dutchman Gerard van
Swieten, who was also the physician of Empress
Maria Theresia. He was a very famous doctor, but
also a scientist. To run that botanical garden, he
contracted another Dutchman, Nikolaus Friedrich
Freiherr von Jacquin.
What are your priorities as Ambassador?
My first priority is to have a good team that is
happy and healthy, so that they can work efficiently,
since thirty people is not a lot. My second
priority as bilateral Ambassador is to have the best
possible relations between Austria and the Netherlands.
Another part of my work is to get to know
a lot of people and build a strong network in order
to further deepen these relationships.
How would you describe the current relationship
between our two countries?
The relationships between the Netherlands and
Austria are excellent in every respect and they are
special because of the diversity of our connections.
Austria is one of the favorite destinations
for Dutch tourists. The Dutch come only after the
Germans as the most frequent visitors to Austria.
2,000,000 Dutch come here per year and they stay
for 10,000,000 nights with Tyrol and Salzburgerland
being their favorite destinations.
Dutch people are also often part of Austria’s
cultural scene, one example being the conductor
Lotte de Beer, who was appointed as director
of Volksoper Vienna, and starting in October
next year, there will be a double exhibition in the
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