Dutch Embassy Bangkok: changing of the guard

Three new faces have recently been seen at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok, which are presented to us with a photo on the Facebook page.

It concerns in the first place HE Mr. Karel Hartogh, who has just arrived in Bangkok to take up his position as Dutch ambassador in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. In the photo he is in the middle. To his right is Mr. Bernhard Kelkes, who started his position as First Secretary of the Department of Political and Economic Affairs. To the ambassador's left, Mr. Jef Haenen, recently started his duties as the new Head of Internal and Consular Affairs. What else do we know about this illustrious trio?

HE Karel Hartogh, Ambassador

Mr. Karel Hartogh has already had a “long life” at Foreign Affairs. We do not (yet) know his age, but we do know that he graduated in International Law in Leiden in 1988. He was the private secretary of the minister for 5 years and then worked in the Asia and Oceania department, first as a deputy director, but from 2009 he is the director of that department.

Last year, he was appointed Temporary Chargé d'Affaires in Islamabad after the ambassador there was seriously injured in a helicopter crash.

Mr. Hartogh will of course know the region like no other from his position in The Hague, but Bangkok is his first foreign base as ambassador.

Bernhard Kelkes, First Secretary Economic and Commercial Affairs

Mr Kelkes also graduated in Leiden in 2001 in International Law and Dutch Civil Law. Almost immediately afterwards he joined Foreign Affairs. The first years as a policy officer in various departments (including the Afghanistan Desk), then made a trip to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (Coordinator Energy Council (Office for European Affairs).

In 2011 he will receive his first foreign appointment. He will be First Secretary of the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, based in Hanoi in Vietnam. Now he will have the same position in Bangkok as First Secretary Economic & Commercial Affairs.

In this position he will, among other things, look after the trade interests between the Netherlands and Thailand, so he will also have a lot of contact with the NTCC and SME Thailand. Dutch tourists and residents will have little to do with him.

Jef Haenen, Head of Internal and Consular Affairs

Of these three, Mr Haenen has the most years of service as a diplomat on mission. He comes from the Dutch Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, where he was Head of Internal Affairs and Operations. He describes this task as follows: Primary person responsible for safety and security (first aid, exercises and training, drawing up and implementing safety and evacuation plans and member of the crisis management team), personnel, accommodation and IT.

In that period from 2011 to the present, he made a trip to Brazil, where he, as a member of the Mobile Consular Support Team, followed the Dutch national team to the various host cities during the 2014 World Cup in order to support the Dutch supporters present there if necessary and to provide consular assistance.

But his list of places abroad is much longer. In 1996 he became Security Manager at the Dutch embassy in Kinshasa (DR Congo) as a 1st class Guardsman of the Royal Marechaussee and then went to the Dutch Embassies in Algeria, Indonesia and Morocco in the same position.

In 2001 his position in Morocco becomes Assistant Attaché. He is then deputy head of the administration, with General Affairs and Finance as his main tasks, and is also responsible for accommodation, safety & security and IT. The term for a specific country is usually 2 to 3 years, so Jef Haenen moves successively to Accra in Ghana, Paramaribo in Suriname and Dhaka in Bangladesh. His last placement for Bangkok was – as mentioned above – Pretoria in South Africa.

In Bangkok, Jef Haenen is the successor of the well-known Jitze Bosma, who has been transferred to Hanoi in Vietnam. We can deal with him for all kinds of consular matters. Onboarding will not be difficult for him, not only because of his vast experience elsewhere, but also because of the knowledge of his assistant department head, the unsurpassed Filiz Devici.

Finally

No doubt we will learn more about these and other employees at the embassy over time and we will certainly come back to them when the occasion arises.

Source: The factual info comes from their Linkedin profiles.