Queen Máxima as UN Advocate for Inclusive Financial Services 1: 2009 - Aug. 2023


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lula said:
If Máxima was there only as a special UN envoy ... why does she appear in the official photo of the dinner? Why does not Ivanka appear as an adviser to the President of the United States?

The photo was for the leaders and their partners, and the representatives that there were of the UN, were the Secretary General of the UN and the directors of agencies as WHO ... a special envoy is a minor charge, if it is not because she is queen of the Netherlands, she would not have been there.

Máxima uses both conditions ... as a UN envoy to justify being present in political events that as queen consort do not correspond to her ... as Queen to have a privileged position in the protocol that as a simple UN envoy would never have. Moreover, she appears as Rutte's partner, while the UN Secretary General, the director of the International Monetary Fund or the director of the World Bank appear in the back row ... so the UN envoy is located one row ahead of her "boss".

United Kingdom is a member of the G20, Spain is a permanent guest ... if they thought it appropriate, any member of their Royal Families could be introduced as an envoy for any cause in representation of their countries. Their situation would be the same as Máxima's as a UN envoy.
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It is exactly her position which works as a highway to the high and mighty, thankfully exploited by the UNSGAD. You are correct: no any "normal" representative from the UN would have such a privileged position, but that is exactly the rationale for appointing (then) Princess Máxima into that position.

Note that the criticism was not about what the Queen did or say. The criticism was that she did not do or say. That is all.
 
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Marengo said:
As a reminder: there is no other Western royal that I know of has met with the Saudi crown prince after he had Mr. Khashoggi cut in pieces by a chain saw. The Duke of York spoke about business ties with Saudi Arabia in Dubai in 2018, but he did not meet with the CP.
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Juan Carlos of Spain did last November and was critizised for it.
https://www.thelocal.es/20181126/king-juan-carlos-under-fire-for-meeting-saudi-crown-prince

The critizism of Maxima regarding not confronting MBS about the murder is ridiculous, did anyone of the present politicians do such thing?
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
Juan Carlos of Spain did last November and was critizised for it.
https://www.thelocal.es/20181126/king-juan-carlos-under-fire-for-meeting-saudi-crown-prince

The critizism of Maxima regarding not confronting MBS about the murder is ridiculous, did anyone of the present politicians do such thing?
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Yes, Juan Carlos was very criticized ... although the circumstances were totally different. The meeting was casual and in a private event ... they just shook hands in the VIP area of the Grand Prix of Formula 1 of Abu Dhabi.
 
Marengo said:
I also found the photo of the Queen with a known murderer rather surprising.

I understand what you say Duc: in international politics you are bound to have to deal with people with dirty hands, including dictators and murderers. But I see no reason why we have to drag the queen down into the filth with these kind of people.

I suppose she must have met with the CP to convince him of the impact of micro finance. I can imagine a normal UN envoy meeting the Crown Prince. But HM is not a normal diplomat. She is not a politician. She is the Queen of The Netherlands. The Queen of The Netherlands should not be photographed cosying up to & thus legitimizing murderers and dictators.

This meeting was very ill advised done with complete disregard for HM role as our Queen. As her work for the UN is now hampering her most important role perhaps it is time to drop the UN function.
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Apparently, the SA media also presented this meeting differently: the crown prince of SA meeting the queen of the Netherlands to strengthen the ties between the royal families...

Duc_et_Pair said:
:previous:

Yes the Prime Minister allows it. Even more: he was with the Queen in Osaka.

Recently there was a survey and the overwhelming response was that Queen Máxima must be able to be involved in the causes of her heart, which are inclusive finances and equal chances for women, all over the world.

In general the Dutch prefer to see their royals have meanig in the real world as much as possible. After all the monarchy operates in the reality, not in a sugarcake Disneyland.

The costs made for the Queen in her role as ambassador are paid for by the UN. But as she remains Queen of course, the Dutch Government pays for the addidtional costs the UN would not have had to make, was it not a royal member, so to say.

That mainly means the personal security and the use of the worldwide Dutch diplomatic infrastructure (read: the local Embassy provide all services the Queen needs). These costs are covered by the regular budgets of the diplomatic service. In a country where there are annual Budget Surpluses, these costs barely cause a stir in the sea of plenty, which is the State Budget.

https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/onder...ctiviteiten-koningin-maxima-inclusive-finance

Third engagement with the Crown Prince, after a bilateral and a diner:
https://discover.operacdn.com/assets/tn/3xl/hq/a85ed2f1e36f77f9089c0fba50de3ecf45b64392

With Donald and Ivanka Trump :
https://twitter.com/x/status/1144842147947900929
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I'd like to highlight the above. While I do think that the queen might be reigned in now, in general I'd say the Dutch are pleased with such a competent queen who really makes a difference in the world and was not just asked for an ambassador role to be a 'face'. Also the king's brother and sisteres-in-law fulfill high profile positions (Mabel with Girls not Brides, Constantijn previously with the EU, now focusing on entreperneurship, and Laurentien previously focusing on illitteracy and now on children's role in sustainable development). So, there is quite some leeway in taking a stand and doing something meaningful within the Dutch royal family - most likely because of Pieter van Vollenhoven who worked hard to be able to do what he ended up doing regarding independent investigations into safety incidents.

lula said:
United Kingdom is a member of the G20, Spain is a permanent guest ... if they thought it appropriate, any member of their Royal Families could be introduced as an envoy for any cause in representation of their countries. Their situation would be the same as Máxima's as a UN envoy.
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I don't understand this part. Máxima is NOT representing the Netherlands, she is representing the SG of the UN. In fact, she even has an official role within the G20:
Queen Máxima is Honorary Patron of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and a Global Agenda Trustee for the World Economic Forum’s Global Challenge Initiative on the Future of the Global Financial System.
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Source: UNSGSA

Which British or Spanish royal family member has been asked or do you expect to be asked by the Secretary General to be his special representative based on their professional credibility and competence to represent the UN's secretary general on the international stage? After that royal will have shown for 10 years to be an excellent special advocate they might consider inviting him/her as well to become an honorary patron of a subcommittee of the G20 and give a keynote...

lula said:
Yes, Juan Carlos was very criticized ... although the circumstances were totally different. The meeting was casual and in a private event ... they just shook hands in the VIP area of the Grand Prix of Formula 1 of Abu Dhabi.
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That's probably worse. Meeting with him in private.

Máxima 'had' to meet the chair of the G20's next meeting (that apparently nobody considered that problematic or it would have been moved to a different location) in her official role as honorary patron of the G20's GPIF.
 
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The problem is that by meeting him at all, Maxima essentially made a mockery of whatever private or public protests the Dutch government has made to the SA government, while the CP scored big PR points with his own people. It was not a neutral act in a PR sense.
 
Ista said:
The problem is that by meeting him at all, Maxima essentially made a mockery of whatever private or public protests the Dutch government has made to the SA government, while the CP scored big PR points with his own people. It was not a neutral act in a PR sense.
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I fully agree it wasn't a smart move (!) but the main problem is the G20 being held in SA next time. If a statement had to be made, the best statement would be for all countries who agree with thd UN report to call for a boycot of the next meeting or so. It's a bit onesided that only queen Máxima is chastized for something she has the least influence over.
 
Somebody, is that directly a member of the British Royal Family or the Spanish Royal Family (or probably any other European parliamentary monarchy), could not accept being an envoy by the Secretary General of the UN, because they do not accept executive positions in international organizations (only honorary), because they clash with the position they should occupy as members of the Royal Family.

Máxima was an economist, had university studies, she had a good job ... but she was not the best economist in the world ... there are many members of royalty with university education, with professional careers that could represent the UN in other sectors ... but it is not acceptable that they travel the world representing something that is not their own country.

On the subject of Salman is the opposite .... Máxima had organized a meeting with him, she met him because she wanted to meet him .... Juan Carlos met him by chance in a public place, and evidently it would have been a bad gesture to his hosts to be rude to another guest (whose father has been friends with Juan Carlos for decades).
 
lula said:
Somebody, is that directly a member of the British Royal Family or the Spanish Royal Family (or probably any other European parliamentary monarchy), could not accept being an envoy by the Secretary General of the UN, because they do not accept executive positions in international organizations (only honorary), because they clash with the position they should occupy as members of the Royal Family.

Máxima was an economist, had university studies, she had a good job ... but she was not the best economist in the world ... there are many members of royalty with university education, with professional careers that could represent the UN in other sectors ... but it is not acceptable that they travel the world representing something that is not their own country.
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There are many royals having executive positions in the IOC (including the British princess royal), so I am not so sure about other royal families not accepting such positions. Even heads of states, such as the grand duke of Luxembourg and the prince of Monaco, currently occupy such positions.

While the Dutch do appreciate their family members to take on such role, they make an acception for the head of state (or at least the current head of state himself resigned of both the IOC and his role as chairman of the Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation when he became the head of state). Other family members do not have the same responsibility and can therefore occupy such positions - as long as the government approves.

On the subject of Salman is the opposite .... Máxima had organized a meeting with him, she met him because she wanted to meet him .... Juan Carlos met him by chance in a public place, and evidently it would have been a bad gesture to his hosts to be rude to another guest (whose father has been friends with Juan Carlos for decades).
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The honorary patron of a G20 initiative met with the host of next year's meeting. It wasn't that she was thinking ' who would I like to meet with; let's pick the crown prince of SA who was involved in murdering someone'.

King Juan Carlos on the other hand has been close friends with Arabian royalty for years while they sincerely suppressed their own people, incarcerated innocent people etc. I'd say, Juan Carlos has a far bigger 'judgment' issue than Máxima.
 
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Queen Máxima will meet the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at least two times more. Th presidency of the G20 is a trojka, with the future, the actual and the former presiding countries in it.

Queen Máxima has now met the Crown Prince who is the future president of the G20 in 2019, who will be the actual president of the G20 in 2020 and who will become the former president of the G20 in 2021.

If people are so upset about the Crown Prince on that stage, they should boycott Saudi-Arabia in the G20, in the first place. I have not heard criticism on Merkel, Macron or Trump meeting the Crown Prince. So it is selective to pick on Queen Máxima. She has zero influency on who holds the presidency of the G20. She has to deal with the country which organizes the next G20 and that is the Crown Prince.
 
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If the members of royalty are traditionally linked to the International Olympic Committee, it is because it is a non-political sports institution and its members swear to be independent of political influence. Generally they are elected in the International Committee, because they are linked to the national committees and therefore represent the sport of their country. They travel to the games and attend the meetings of the committee ... but they do not come individually as representatives of the Committee before governments of other nations as Maxima does. So the type of role is very different.

Probably if you are the Netherlands and you live happily in the midst of a democratic Europe surrounded by friendly neighbors ... you do not need to relate to the countries of the Arab world. But when you are Spain and you share the Mediterranean Sea and your southern border with Arab countries, the historical and geopolitical role you must play in the area is very different... and as King, Juan Carlos had an access to those monarchies that was not easy for politicians. It was not a simple matter of friendship, but a much more complex issue.
 
Today's debate in the second chamber resulted in two approved motions. One calling the 'cabinet' (government without the king) to take better care when judging and reviewing ancillary positions; and a second one expressing appreciation for the queen's work, calling the cabinet to make sure that the queen will be able to continue her important work.
 
Somebody said:
Today's debate in the second chamber resulted in two approved motions. One calling the 'cabinet' (government without the king) to take better care when judging and reviewing ancillary positions; and a second one expressing appreciation for the queen's work, calling the cabinet to make sure that the queen will be able to continue her important work.
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That is what I call a gentlemanlike and very velvet-gloved approach by Parliament.
 
The queen was asked about her meeting with the Saudi Crown prince; she referred to the answers of the prime minister and the secretary of state (minister of foreign affairs).
 
A wise thing to do as they are responsible for it.

--
The queen was also asked if -like Queen Mathilde- she would bring her daughter(s) along on one of these trips. The queen responded that her dfaughters are very interested in her work and ask her lots of questions about it. She also pointed out that her daughters are younger than the daughter of Queen Mathilde. But when the time comes and if school allows it we will see what happens.

Source: royaltyonline.

At the same time royalblog pointed out that the queen is making (workdays of 12 hours in public, where she is always in the center of the attention. The journalist behind the blog voiced his admiration for the queen, qho gets visibly emotional when people tell their stories about the impact of micro credits on their lives.
 
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Yesterday, July 16, Queen Máxima met United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to mark 10th anniversary of UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) at the United Nations headquarters in New York City:



** rex gallery **
 
Máxima seemed quite uncomfortable when asked about her meeting with the Saudi Crown prince during the photo call. She was tripping over her words more than normally it seems (although I have noticed that her Dutch deteriorated over the years, so I am not exactly sure what her current 'confident' language level is). The king was much more confident stating that he was proud of his wife's work and that all had been vetted with both the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs.
 
It seems that it is not the UN but the Dutch Government which pays for Queen Máxima's UN-activities. Since 10 years the costs Queen Máxima makes for the UN are € 150.000,-- (appr. US $ 166,000.--) per year. These are not paid from the royal budget but by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The use of security, the overhead costs from the State Information Agency or the Royal Household are not in that amount and not furtherer specified.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2302800-regering-betaalt-jaarlijks-150-000-euro-voor-vn-werk-maxima.html
 
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The NPO aired a documentary about Queen Máxima on Wednesday. The topic is the 10-year anniversary of HM's work as advocate for financial inclusion for the UN.

Interestingly enough they seem to subtitle everything that HM says in Dutch. I have never seen this before (but I may have missed it).

An excellent documentary with nice words from Ban Ki Moon and Antonio Guterres.

https://www.npostart.nl/maxima-de-pleitbezorger/02-10-2019/VPWON_1304133
 
Perhaps for the deaf/bad of hearing. Or they expect an interest from Belgium.
 
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