Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma (born 10 July 1981) is a Dutch politician of the D66 party serving as a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

since 20 September 2012, after having been elected in the

2012 Dutch general election Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands were ...

Early career

Prior to being elected he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During his period as a diplomat he was posted to the Dutch Embassies in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and to the Permanent Representation to the Palestinian Authority.

Member of Parliament

In parliament, Sjoerdsma serves as his party’s foreign affairs. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the Dutch delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

Political positions

In 2019, Sjoerdsma publicly criticized

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Máxima (born Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti; 17 May 1971) is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander. Argentine by birth, she worked in marketing when she met Willem-Alexander, eldest son and heir apparent of Queen Beatrix ...

over a meeting she held with Saudi

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...

Mohammed bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...

on the sidelines of the

2019 G20 Osaka summit The 2019 G20 Osaka summit was the fourteenth meeting of the G20, a forum of 19 countries and the EU that together represent most of the world economy. It was held on 28–29 June 2019 at the International Exhibition Center in Osaka. It was ...

without raising the murder of journalist

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; ar, جمال أحمد خاشقجي, Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, ; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a ge ...

. Sjoerdsma is an outspoken critic of China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In March 2021, the Chinese government banned Sjoerdsma from entering

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

and conducting business with Chinese firms in retaliation for European Union-imposed sanctions against four Chinese officials for their roles in perpetrating the

Uyghur genocide The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Since 2014, the Chinese government, under the ...

. NOS News (March 22, 2021

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Electoral history

References

External links

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Parlement.com biography
*
Sj.W. (Sjoerd Wiemer) Sjoerdsma MSc
(Montesquieu Institute) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sjoerdsma, Sjoerd 1981 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Democrats 66 politicians 21st-century Dutch diplomats Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People from Eindhoven Utrecht University alumni 21st-century Dutch politicians 20th-century Dutch people