Sjoerd Sjoerdsma

Early career

Prior to his election to Parliament in 2012 Sjoerdsma worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this period he was posted as a diplomat to the Dutch embassy in Afghanistan and to the permanent representation to the Palestinian Authority.

In Parliament

Sjoerdsma served three terms in Parliament before declining to run for reelection. In Parliament, he served as his party's spokesperson for foreign affairs.^[1][2] In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the Dutch delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. In February 2024, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the latter country for his unwavering support. He had called on the Dutch government to assist Ukraine by providing F-16 fighter jets, which it eventually did.^[3]

In government

In 2026 Sjoerdsma was appointed Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the newly-installed cabinet of Prime Minister Rob Jetten.

In 2019, Sjoerdsma publicly criticised Queen Máxima of the Netherlands over a meeting she held with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 Osaka summit without raising the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.^[4]

Sjoerdsma is an outspoken critic of China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang.^[5] In March 2021, the Chinese government banned Sjoerdsma from entering mainland China and conducting business with Chinese firms in retaliation for European Union-imposed sanctions against four Chinese officials for their roles in perpetrating persecution of Uyghurs in China.^[5][6]