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Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte on the “successful” continuation of his fourth term in government on Tuesday. PM Modi expressed confidence in the two countries’ warm relations, saying that he expects the two countries to work together to push their broad relationship “to new heights.” His comments follow the inauguration of a new government coalition by Prime Minister Rutte and Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Monday.

The new Dutch government has announced a number of initiatives aimed at combating climate change and the coronavirus epidemic. In addition, in 2020, it announced Indo-Pacific guidelines that identify India as a crucial partner.

At least 10 months after the general elections in March 2021, the Dutch coalition government took their oaths at the Royal Palace Noordeinde in The Hague. PM Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is in charge of the cabinet. The Christian Democratic Party (CDP), the Center-Left Democrats Party 66 (D66), and a small unit of the moderate Christian Union are also included (CU).

To recap, the Netherlands held general elections from March 15 to 17, 2021, after Rutte resigned from his cabinet on January 15, 2021, alleging political responsibility for a child benefit tax scam that falsely accused many parents of being fraudsters for collecting childcare benefits. PM Rutte’s VVD party won 34 seats out of 150 in the House of Representatives in the March elections, followed by D66 with 24 seats. The new cabinet, which includes CU and CDA, now has a majority of 78 lawmakers. On December 13, after at least 299 days since the public polls, the parties came to an agreement to form a coalition.

PM Mark Rutte went on to become the Netherlands’ longest-serving leader, and his cabinet includes at least 10 female lawmakers out of the 20 senior Cabinet ministers for the first time in the country’s history. Sigrid Kaag, the new Finance Minister from D66, is one of them. Kaag was sworn in via videoconference on Monday after testing positive for COVID-19, according to Euro News.