 Today in the Our Ambassador series, we're joined by Australia's ambassador to the Netherlands, Neil Mules. Good morning, Neil. It's a great pleasure to be here. Thank you. Neil, of course, there's a long historical connection between Australia and the Netherlands, but how does that resonate today? Yes. Well, many people don't realise that the Dutch were the first to land in any numbers on Australian territory and we celebrated back in 2006, 400 years since the first Dutch ship landed in Australia, the Deufken up in Cape York. In 1616, Dirk Hartog, the Dutch navigator, landed on the coast of Western Australia, the first of many Dutch ships that reached the West Australian coast. So we'll have a big celebration also in the next few years for 400 years since that happened. There is this very rich tapestry of historical connection. The Dutch were obviously the first Europeans and as many schoolchildren will know, the western half of Australia was called New Holland for the first few hundred years of European contact. Since then, there's been a continuation of that. Other Dutch navigators have left their mark, names like Cape Lewin, Rotnest Island and even Tasmania and the Tasman Sea of course, named after Abel Tasman, the famous Dutch navigator. That contact dropped off a little bit because the Dutch didn't stay and the British came to the other side of the country, but following the Second World War, the waves of Dutch migration that came to Australia I suppose was the next big Dutch contact, Dutch impact in Australia. We had hundreds of thousands of Dutch people arrive in Australia and they've made an extraordinary contribution to our country. So there is this backdrop of historical connection and friendship between us. And so then looking beyond the historical relationship, how would you characterize the contemporary relationship between Australia and the Netherlands? Sort of laid over that historical backdrop we have a situation today in which the Netherlands and Australia basically share a global outlook and very similar values and the way we see the world is very similar. So we've been able to build an extraordinarily strong bilateral relationship on a historical foundation. Most recently we saw that in evidence where Australia and the Netherlands work together in Afghanistan to militaries work together to provide security in Oruzgun Province as a result of that. The Dutch military has the highest regard for Australia and the Australian military. But more broadly this connection we have enables us to talk to the Dutch, compare notes and share approaches across a whole range of international issues whether it's very sensitive, high-profile foreign policy matters like counter-terrorism for example, UN reform. The Dutch are prominent members of the EU and have a close friend in the Councils of the EU. But also in lighter areas, in cultural relations for example, the Great Dutch Orchestra, the Concertgebouw as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations will visit Australia this year for the first time. And apart from musicians I guess I think the most recent stats we have are from 2011 where 160,000 Dutch visited Australia, whether they're backpackers or businessmen. They stay longer than most visitors and they learn a lot about Australia. The Dutch know and like Australia very much. I think the Dutch know more about contemporary Aboriginal art for example than anybody else in Europe and perhaps more than many Australians. So we have a very solid bilateral relationship at every level. Of course Australians are already quite familiar with a number of Dutch companies through their interaction and investments in Australia. Can you tell us a little bit about the commercial and investment relationship between the two countries? Absolutely and of course the economic relationship is always one of the major pillars of any serious bilateral relationship. The Netherlands is an important economic power in the world. If you just took the world's biggest economies it would come in in the top 20 somewhere. And so it's very important for us to work together with the Dutch on broad economic matters. At a bilateral level we have a healthy trading relationship about $5 billion a year. It suffered a little bit from the global financial crisis but it's bounced back. But the highlight story on economic relations between our countries is in the area of investment. The Netherlands is the fourth biggest foreign direct investor in Australia. As you mentioned there are household names that we all know. Shell Phillips which are big investors in Australia. Other big investors the financial institutions, ING, the rubber bank. So almost all of the important global players in the Dutch economy are present in Australia and we take full advantage of that. In the other direction Australians are investing more and more in the Netherlands as well. And I think it's now about the ninth biggest destination for Australian foreign direct investment. So across the board on the economic front things are healthy with potential for being even greater in the future. And of course the Hague is probably best known to most Australians as an international legal centre. Can you tell us about how important that is and a little bit about your role there? Absolutely and as I've been talking about the bilateral relationship but the truth is that probably more than half my time as ambassador in the Netherlands is spent on the international organisations based in the Netherlands. That starts with the organisation for the prevention of chemical weapons which is the international body that oversees the implementation of the chemical weapons convention. Australia was very important in the foundation of that organisation. We remain very active in it. Australians by and large don't know very much about this these days but it's important to recognise the importance of the OPCW. The chemical weapons convention is the only international disarmament agreement which has all but achieved the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons. So very important we stay engaged with them. You mentioned the courts which is the other big international feature of the job and they range from the country specific tribunals such as the Yugoslavia and Lebanon tribunal. We've been very active in the Yugoslav tribunal historically and as it winds up we will continue to be but also that includes the international criminal court. This is a very interesting and challenging development in the world's international legal system. For the first time we have established an organisation which has as it's name a global coverage of the world and an ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Australia is very active in that organisation. We're working very hard towards helping improve the governance of that court as it enters its only second decade in existence. I suppose the court that most people would be familiar with in The Hague is the International Court of Justice which is the UN body which looks at disputes between states. Australia again has had quite a lot to do with the ICJ over its history and most people will know that we currently have a case in the ICJ that's our case against Japan on whaling in the Southern Ocean. That's going to keep the Embassy extremely busy during the course of this year. The oral hearings in the court should happen in the middle of the year and so we're in very close touch with the court on an almost daily basis in preparations for that and that'll keep me and my colleagues busy. So you see there's more than enough for us to do in the international organisations in The Hague. Thanks very much Neil. It's been great thank you. And that was Neil Mules, Australia's Ambassador to the Netherlands.