Kyiv is the last career stop for Eduard Hoeks, Netherlands ambassador to Ukraine, whose diplomatic career started in the Soviet Union in 1982, six months before Leonid Brezhnev died.
In the nearly 36 years since, Hoeks has been stationed at 13 embassies and witnessed a lot of governments come to an end — in the Soviet Union (he’s been to every former republic except Tajikistan), Kenya, Algiers, Indonesia and elsewhere.
“In almost all countries I served in, there’s been regime change,” Hoeks told the Kyiv Post in an interview leading up to the April 27 King’s Day holiday.
Hoeks didn’t mean that as a warning or omen for Ukraine’s leaders, but he can sense societal discontent when he sees it.
And he can see it in Ukraine.
Although he’s been here only since November, he speaks Russian fluently — and has since his 20s — and has spent decades in the region, studying and analyzing its history, mentality and culture.
“I have always taken a special interest in this region,” he said. “I think it’s a fascinating time to be here.”
Unfortunately, in Ukraine, “what we see is that young people are leaving the country,” Hoeks said “It’s a great concern, obviously, the brain drain. How many people live in Ukraine? Nobody knows. The last census was in 2001. We see many are leaving here, not only to Poland, but also to the Czech Republic, where there are officially 100,000 Ukrainians and unofficially many more. The pay is better; conditions are better. The general life is better.”
Corruption mentality
How and whether Ukraine will break its history of corruption, which has produced deep societal inequities, are intriguing questions.
On the one hand, “I refuse to believe that corruption is in the DNA of people,” Hoeks said.
On the other hand, “I do see there is a heritage, that in a society where one had to circumvent as much as possible government influence, that’s the context where corruption could flourish,” Hoeks said. “It’s still predominantly there, the corruption issue.
“It will not disappear in this generation or the next generation,” he predicted. “It will take some generations for the country to get up to Western standards. Everyone now is talking about creating an anti-corruption court. But it’s not about new institutions. It’s about mentality. Tomorrow you might have an anti-corruption court. It will change nothing. Ukraine will still need to change the mentality. There’s no quick fix.”
Sadly, he noted: “Corruption seems to be the spine of the economy in Ukraine. It seems to be the distinguishing feature of politics and economics in this country.”
Vote against Ukraine
The Dutch rubbed Ukrainians the wrong way in an April 2016 referendum to reject the European Union’s ratification of a political and free trade agreement with the nation. With only a 32 percent turnout, 61 percent of voters rejected the deal. Populist politician Geert Wilders led the charge, earning enmity among Ukrainians.
The rebuke came a month after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that “Ukraine will definitely not be able to become a member of the EU in the next 20 to 25 years, and not of NATO either.”
Hoeks said that, while the referendum was officially about Ukraine, the Dutch were venting their opposition to EU expansion and their euroskepticism in general. A 2015 poll showed that EU membership for Ukraine is lowest in the Netherlands, with only 27 percent in support.
The Dutch are “very much against EU enlargement,” he acknowledged. “Many people in the Netherlands think that enlargement to Central European and Eastern European countries was too fast.”
Despite the vote, Prime Minister Mark Rutte “creatively” allowed the EU and Ukraine to ratify the association agreement after extracting three “legally binding” concessions: No promise of EU membership to Ukraine, no security guarantees for Ukraine and no increase in financial aid for Ukraine.
Soft on Russia?
The vote is not the only event that leads many in Ukraine suspecting that the Netherlands is, if not soft on Russia, then overly accommodating to the Kremlin’s interests, which have always included blocking Ukraine’s Western integration.
Others are puzzled by the Dutch people’s muted outrage over the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014 over Russian-controlled territory in the eastern Donbas. The crash killed 298 people; 193 of them were Dutch citizens.
The evidence has always pointed to a Russian-made Buk missile, fired either by Russian soldiers or Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas in Ukraine, as the culprit.
But rather than lead the charge for tougher sanctions against Russia, the Dutch are waiting for the four-year-old investigation to be completed.
Some argue that the Netherlands, an export-oriented country that nonetheless imports more than $20 billion yearly from Russia, mainly oil and gas, simply cannot afford to economically to anger Moscow.
Not so, says Hoeks.
He said that the Dutch are committed to EU sanctions against Russia for a number of reasons — the MH17, the annexation of Crimea, and the war in the Donbas. The Netherlands also has suffered counter-sanctions from Russia.
As for the MH17 investigation, now almost four years old, the Dutch “want to be 100 percent sure, not 99 percent sure, of this case” in order to prove who is guilty of the murders in a Dutch court, he said.
Lack of high-level visits
Another sign of bilateral relations is the frequency of high-level visits. On that score, Ukraine and the Netherlands don’t have a lot to brag about.
Although Rutte has been Netherlands’ prime minister since 2010, he has yet to visit Ukraine and no visit is currently planned. Poroshenko last visited the Netherlands on Nov. 26–27, 2015. However, the two leaders met in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when Poroshenko invited Rutte to Ukraine.
‘Complicated nation’
Just as Ukraine will not eradicate corruption overnight, neither will it build a strong nation quickly.
Perhaps reflecting his many years in the former Soviet Union, Hoeks appears to have a hard time seeing Ukraine as a truly independent and united nation.
“I would say it’s a very complicated nation. Some time ago, a couple of years ago; I would not have been surprised if the country had split up. The danger is not completely over.
It’s dismembered because of Crimea and the Donbas. It’s a country that harbors different cultures, different histories, different political contexts.”
“Putin has done a lot to unite the country,” Hoeks said. “I think he deserves a statue in his honor for nation-building. But anti-Russian sentiment is not enough of a building stone for a nation.”
Russian role
Not only Ukraine, but the EU, has to figure out a way to work with Russia, he said.
“Russia will not go away. Geographically it’s there and it will always play a very important role in the development of this country and Russia will also play an important role in the development of the European Union,” Hoeks said. “The destiny of the EU, to a large extent, depends on a long-term strategic relationship with Russia, which we have not yet managed to develop.”
Management style
Hoeks said he employs the “50/50 rule” to his key policy staff, requiring them to spend at least half of their work time out of the office, meeting with people, attending seminars and so forth.
“If someone has been in the office the whole day, I say you didn’t work. You could have stayed at home,” the ambassador said. “Our added value is to meet people that we can’t meet in The Hague.”
In his spare time, he describes himself as “a keen golfer” for 40 years, but still a “high handicapper” who has yet to swing a club in Ukraine after arriving in November.
“Golf is a lot like love,” he jokes. “If you don’t take it seriously, it’s no fun. If you do take it seriously, it hurts.” Besides enjoying the game, he likes golf as a way of getting to know people.
He is married with three adult daughters, all in Amsterdam, and three grandchildren. When his assignment in Ukraine is over, he and his wife will retire in The Hague.
During his tenure in Ukraine, he said he will support Ukrainians’ desire for change, but said an embassy has “to be modest” about its goals.
“Understanding is quite an achievement. It takes a lot of our energy. We have to be careful about changes. We are not the Verkhovna Rada, the president, the government. We’re not even in the streets. We are foreigners. At the same time, we want to help, to persist. When Ukrainians themselves express the need for assistance, we’re there for them.”
He described diplomacy and investigative journalism as “very much alike” in the pursuit of truth, despite the differences in telling it. “I cannot write everything, unfortunately,” he said.
“I cannot even tell you everything.”
Professionally, he said: “What gives me satisfaction is not so much the changes I see. It’s to have an intellectual grasp of things — trying to see through a society, make contacts, make friends, bring people together, enjoy life in a different country, speak the language, understand the people, live with them. That’s actually my main motivation. I’m not a politician; I’m a diplomat.”
