Sigrid Kaag

Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag ([ˈsiɣrɪt ˈɑxnɛs maːˈrijaː ˈkaːx]; born 2 November 1961) is a Dutch diplomat and politician, who has been the leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) since 4 September 2020. She has served as Minister of Finance and first Deputy Prime Minister in the fourth Rutte cabinet since 10 January 2022. She previously served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation from 26 October 2017 to 10 August 2021, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 25 May 2021 to 17 September 2021 in the third Rutte cabinet.

A diplomat by occupation, Kaag started working for the United Nations in 1994. She was Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa for UNICEF in Amman from 2007 to May 2010, when she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations of the UNDP in New York. From October 2013 to September 2014, she served as Under Secretary-General and Special Coordinator of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria to oversee the elimination of the country's chemical weapons program. From January 2015 to October 2017, Kaag was the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).

Kaag was born on 2 November 1961 in Rijswijk as the second daughter of Frans Kaag and Agnes Kaag-Robben. Her father, who was a classical pianist and music teacher, was originally from Wervershoof, while her mother, a primary school teacher, was from Arnhem. The family settled in Zeist, where Kaag grew up.

After completing her secondary education, she initially studied Arabic at Utrecht University, but later switched to The American University in Cairo where she obtained a B.A. degree in Middle East Studies in 1985. She subsequently obtained an M.Phil. degree in International Relations from St Antony's College (University of Oxford) in 1987 and an M.A. degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Exeter in 1988. She also received foreign relations training at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, and studied at the French École nationale d'administration (ENA).

Early career

Kaag began her professional career in 1988 as an analyst for Royal Dutch Shell in London, United Kingdom. In 1990, she started working for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she was the deputy head of the department of United Nations political affairs.

1994–2017: Career at the United Nations

Kaag started working for the United Nations in 1994 and first served as Senior United Nations Adviser in the Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Khartoum, Sudan. From 1998 to 2004, she was Chief of Donor Relations for the International Organization for Migration and Senior Programme Manager with the External Relations Office of UNRWA in Jerusalem. Working in the Middle East she was responsible for areas as the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

From 2007 to May 2010, Kaag was Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa for UNICEF in Amman. In May 2010, she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy of the United Nations Development Programme in New York. In this capacity, she was the deputy to Helen Clark and oversaw UNDP'sstrategic external engagement, organization-wide communication and advocacy, as well as resource mobilization.

Head of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria

On 13 October 2013, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon nominated Kaag to lead the OPCW-UN Joint Mission for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. The United Nations Security Council was set to vote on her nomination three days later, on 16 October. She was then officially confirmed for the position. Kaag led a team of one hundred experts who were responsible for ensuring the elimination of Syria's chemical weapon stockpiles before 30 June 2014.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon

By the end of her term in September 2014, news media reported that Kaag was rumored to succeed Lakhdar Brahimi as UN Special Envoy to Syria. On 1 December 2014, the UN Secretary General Ban announced that Kaag would become the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), succeeding Sir Derek Plumbly.

In early 2017, Kaag was considered by international media to be one of the candidates to succeed Helen Clark as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and head of the United Nations Development Group; the post eventually went to Achim Steiner.

2017–present: Minister and party leader

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation

Following the 2017 Dutch government formation, Kaag was asked for a ministerial post by D66 leader Alexander Pechtold. She was installed as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation on 26 October 2017. After the resignation of Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra on 13 February 2018, she was appointed ad interim to succeed him while conserving her other cabinet position. Kaag was consequently the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. She was replaced by Stef Blok as Foreign Minister on 7 March 2018.

From 2018 to 2022, Kaag served on the joint World Bank–WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-chaired by Elhadj As Sy and Gro Harlem Brundtland. In 2019, she joined the World Economic Forum High-Level Group on Humanitarian Investing, co-chaired by Børge Brende, Kristalina Georgieva and Peter Maurer.

2021 Dutch general election

Soon after joining the cabinet, there was speculation about Kaag's candidacy for the D66 leadership, which had arisen after the resignation of Alexander Pechtold. During this period, she also profiled herself by giving speeches, often outside her own portfolio as a minister.

On 21 June 2020, Kaag announced her candidacy for lijsttrekkerschap of the Democrats 66 for the 2021 general election, with the ambition of becoming the Netherlands' first female Prime Minister. Kajsa Ollongren and Rob Jetten were also speculated to stand as candidates, but both refrained from doing so. The only opponent was the unknown member Ton Visser, which resulted in Kaag winning the election with 95.7% of the votes. She was elected as party leader on 4 September 2020, making her the second female party leader of D66 after Els Borst in 1998. In this capacity, she led the party into the 2021 Dutch general election.

In the run-up to the election, the VPRO documentary Sigrid Kaag: Van Beiroet tot Binnenhof was broadcast on 3 January 2021. Before this, Kaag had been followed for several years by documentary makers. After the elections, GeenStijl published about the communication between the broadcasting company and D66 about the documentary, which they had obtained via a request for access to government information. This showed that D66 did have a lot of substantive requests, some of which were granted, although this was denied beforehand. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also interfered, including the broadcast date of the documentary. Initially, Kaag indicated that this was not at her request, but soon admitted that she was responsible for it. Following this report, the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) stated that there was no reason for further investigation, as editorial independence does not appear to have been violated.

D66's campaign for the 2021 general election was successful. Under Kaag's leadership, D66 won 24 seats in the House of Representatives, thereby becoming the second-largest party after the VVD. Kaag joined the House of Representatives as the party's parliamentary leader on 31 March 2021.

During a lecture in the Rode Hoed debating centre in September of the same year, she voiced fierce criticism of the political culture that had arisen partly under Mark Rutte's leadership. Shortly after, in April 2021, she joined forces with CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra in putting forward a motion of censure to voice their disapproval of VVD leader Rutte.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Due to changes within the outgoing cabinet, Kaag was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 25 May 2021. She combined this position with her position as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation until 10 August 2021. Thereafter, she was succeeded as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation by another former diplomat, Tom de Bruijn.

On 16 September 2021, the House of Representatives passed a motion of censure against her. A majority reproached her for the late evacuation of Dutch citizens and local civilian personnel from Afghanistan amid the 2021 Taliban offensive and Fall of Kabul. In response to the passing of the motion of censure, Kaag announced her intention to resign as minister. King Willem-Alexander granted her resignation on 17 September, and she was succeeded by Ben Knapen.

Minister of Finance

After she negotiated in the 2021–2022 Dutch cabinet formation, Kaag returned to the fourth Rutte cabinet as Minister of Finance and first Deputy Prime Minister. On 12 July 2023, five days after the collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet, she announced in an interview in Trouw that she would not lead D66 into the 2023 general election, due to the impact of the "hate, intimidation and threats" she receives on her family.

• 2015 – Honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Exeter
• 2016 – Wateler Peace Prize awarded by the Carnegie Foundation

European Union organisations

• European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)
• European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)

International organizations

• African Development Bank (AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• Asian Development Bank (ADB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, Alternate Member
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• World Bank, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
• OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), Member of the Governing Board (since 2017)

Non-profit organizations

• P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2019)
• Generation Unlimited, Member of the Board (since 2018)
• International Gender Champions (IGC), Member (since 2017)
• Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), Member (2017)

Kaag is married and has four children. Her husband, Anis al-Qaq, is a dentist and a Palestinian national from Jerusalem who served as a deputy minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s and as the Palestinian representative to Switzerland. Kaag is a noted polyglot and speaks six languages: Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic. She is a practicing Catholic.