On 14 January the Dutch government announced that Pieter de Gooijer would be the Netherlands' next permanent representative to the EU.
The following week de Gooijer's name surfaced in a set of US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. A US diplomat suggested that de Gooijer, who is currently director-general of political affairs in the Dutch foreign ministry, was involved in trying to sway Wouter Bos, the finance minister at the time, to back the idea of prolonging the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan.
According to the leaked diplomatic cables, dated 3 September 2009, de Gooijer “encouraged” Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador to NATO, to ask Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, to tell Bos that the Netherlands would not have a seat at G20 discussions if it did not extend its military mission in Afghanistan.
Uri Rosenthal, the Dutch foreign minister, has denied the accuracy of the cable, but questions have been asked in the Dutch parliament as to whether de Gooijer should be trusted to represent the Netherlands in Brussels.
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