Embassy of the Netherlands in Czechia

King's Day in Prague 🧡👑, celebrated with President Petr Pavel

This Monday, April 27, we had a pleasure to bring together our partners, colleagues and friends, to mark our national day – to celebrate Koningsdag, the birthday of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander. King's Day stands for unity, connectedness, and togetherness, and Prague, blossom-covered and bright, offered a fitting setting to honour that tradition with Czech friends and partners.

We were deeply honoured to welcome 🇨🇿 President Petr Pavel, whose presence was a powerful affirmation of the close ties and shared values between our two countries, reaffirmed last year by the State Visit of Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima.

In her address, Ambassador Mina Noor drew on Karel Čapek's belief in solidarity and collective responsibility among nations to reflect on what binds 🇳🇱 and 🇨🇿 together; shared values under pressure, calling for resilient societies, commitment to our allies, and unwavering support for Ukraine. She framed innovation as a defining feature of our partnership, one that depends on transparent rules, the rule of law, independent media, a strong civil society, and diversity as an asset, and one that already drives flourishing Dutch-Czech cooperation across mobility, architecture, creative industries, film, and design.

This event wouldn't be possible without the support of the Dutch companies, our partners, thriving in the Czech Republic. Our sincere thanks to three main sponsors - ING, Philips, and Signify - for their contribution and active involvement that turned this evening into one to remember.

Heartfelt thanks also to Royal Ahrend, Albert, CTP, Heineken, NN, Voerman, Randstad, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and to the NCCC - Netherlands Czech Chamber of Commerce.

To His Majesty the King. To the Czech Republic. To the longstanding and deep friendship between our nations.

Photocredit: Pavel Matela.

A royal wish through children’s eyes 🎨👑

This lovely idea - sparked by the daughter of one of our colleagues - brought together the Embassy children to share drawings celebrating the birthday of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and national day.

Happy King's Day! 🥳🧡

👑

Connecting Innovators in Brno: A Shared Vision for Strong Tech and Innovation Ecosystems 🇨🇿🇳🇱

H.E. Ambassador Mina Noor and the Dutch Embassy team visited , South Moravia, last week. Our goal was to engage with the region’s dynamic innovation ecosystem, and to explore how we can further build upon our bilateral economic cooperation; a mission greatly strengthened by the recent appointment of the Dutch Honorary Consul in Brno, Pavel Ivanyi.

What unites the Netherlands and South Moravia is a shared passion for innovation and a deep dedication to building working, collaborative tech ecosystems. During our visit, we saw a striking parallel between Brno and Dutch high-tech ecosystems such as Brainport Eindhoven. Both regions are driven by strong engineering traditions, leading technical universities, and an innovation landscape built around high-tech manufacturing.

The Brno region's technological landscape is highly impressive and offers great opportunities for partnership:
💡R&D Excellence: The region’s knowledge intensity has reached 2.9% of GDP, ranking first in Czechia and standing above the EU average. Within the city of Brno itself, it reaches 5.1%.
💡Semiconductor Synergy: Brno is a major center for chip design and electron microscopy. Our discussions highlighted how Czechia's strengths in these areas complement Dutch global leadership in lithography and manufacturing equipment.
💡Concrete Cooperation: We saw this collaboration in action while visiting Dutch-owned NTS, a high-tech facility that manufactures complex mechatronic systems right here in South Moravia

A successful ecosystem requires active communities and strong networks. We were highly inspired by the grassroots digital organizations driving STEM education, digital literacy, and creative hubs from the ground up.

Thank you to all the partners, organizations, and leaders who made this visit so insightful:

Regional Business & Innovation Leadership:
Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce
JIC

High-Tech & Semiconductor Ecosystem:
NTS
Czech Semiconductor Centre
Czech National Semiconductor Cluster

Digital Communities & Grassroots Tech: VIDA! science centrum, KUMST Brno, Gamebaze, PyLadies, Studentský tým strojLAB, FabLab Brno, Otevřená města / Open Cities

Business Roundtable hosted by CTP Czech at Clubco CZ with representatives of Wistron, NTS, ABB, and Telight.

Another film award goes to the Netherlands 👍
The 33rd Dny evropského filmu / Days of European Film festival announced the award-winning films and the jury of the debut competition First Time awarded the film REEDLAND/RIETLAND/V RÁKOSÍ by Dutch film director Sven Bresser! CONGRATULATIONS 🎉

You can see the film on Saturday, 11 April at 17:00 hrs at Edison Filmhub Praha

Great to see the Česká spořitelna Campus coming to life in Prague 👷‍♂️🏗️

During a recent site visit, the Ambassador Mina Noor and the embassy team got a close look at this ambitious development in progress. Inspiring to see Dutch architecture by HofmanDujardin studio and urban design making a real impact - helping shape the future of this part of the city 🇳🇱✨

See more about the project here: https://www.hofmandujardin.nl/headquarters/aeska-spoaitelna-prague

The famous Dutch and Czech rabbits Nijntje/Miffy & Bob a Bobek wishing you lovely Easter days!
Veselé Velikonoce! 🐰
Fijne Paasdagen! 🐥

25 years ago today, the Netherlands made history. 🏳️‍🌈

On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to open civil marriage to same-sex couples. This milestone reflects decades of unity, perseverance, and cooperation between government, civil society, and the private sector.

Today we celebrate this milestone; not just as a moment in history, but as a reminder that equal rights strengthen our societies.

This is about more than marriage. It is about universal human rights. LGBTIQ+ rights are human rights - the erosion of rights for one group weakens the foundation of basic rights for everyone.

Advancing equal rights is a marathon. The Netherlands, together with its partners, will continue to take a firm stance for human dignity and freedom.

UNITY is our answer to division and discrimination.

🔗 https://lnkd.in/dCagGRiy

At the Max van der Stoel Memorial in Praha 6, the Dutch Ambassador Mina Noor together with the Mayor Jakub Stárek remembered a powerful meeting between Jan Patočka and Max van der Stoel - a philosopher and a diplomat united by courage.

The meeting took place on March 1 in 1977 in Prague´s Hotel Intercontinental. Van der Stoel, at that time Dutch foreign minister, became the first Western politician to publicly back the Charter 77 movement.

In a time of silence, they chose dialogue. In a world of pressure, they stood for truth.

Their legacy? Real change begins with speaking up and listening well.

Building stronger, more innovative economies together - that is the ambition driving the Netherlands-Czech Republic collaboration.

Recently, H.E. Ambassador Mina Noor held two in-depth working sessions with members of the Czech government to discuss how we can jointly strengthen our economies and industries: meeting on Friday with 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček Ministerstvo průmyslu a obchodu, and today with Minister of Agriculture Martin Šebestyán Ministerstvo zemědělství.

Across both conversations, a clear shared strategic vision emerged:
🔹 Innovation Across Sectors: Working together to bring cutting-edge technology and fresh ideas into both our industries and farms.
🔹 Energy and Supply Chain Resilience: Cooperating on the European energy transition while jointly addressing shared pressures, from high energy and fertilizer costs to their impact on manufacturing and food production.
🔹 Driving High Added Value: Strengthening the overall competitiveness of our economies by shifting toward higher added value in high-tech manufacturing and the broader agricultural sector alike.
🔹 Leveraging Shared Expertise: Combining Czech strong industrial capabilities with Dutch leadership in innovation, including the practical expertise of the Dutch high-tech and agricultural value chains.

And the Jeden svět / One World 2026 award for best film went to My Word Against Mine - Dutch film by Maasja Ooms.
The Regional Jury awarded the film Welded Together by Anastasiya Miroshnichenko in Belgian, French and Dutch coproduction.

Congratulations to all the awarded films and film makers! And big THANK YOU to the One World/People in Need team!