Caspar Veldkamp

Caspar Cornelis Johannes Veldkamp (born 23 April 1964) is a Dutch politician and former diplomat currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Schoof cabinet. Veldkamp previously served as a member of the House of Representatives for the New Social Contract party from December 2023 to July 2024.

Career
Veldkamp started working as a policy officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993. He later had postings in Warsaw, Washington, DC, Brussels, and London, and he served as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Israel (2011–2015) and to Greece (2015–2019). In the latter role, he cooperated with Minister of Finance and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem on the Greek government-debt crisis. His last diplomatic position was as a member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's board of directors.

Veldkamp was a long-time member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) before he joined New Social Contract (NSC) to participate in the 2023 general election. During the campaign, Veldkamp said to be critical of the "transfer of powers" towards the European Union (EU). He presented the newly-founded party he joined as an "optimistic party for the dissatisfied citizen". He was elected to the House of Representatives, where his focus as a parliamentarian has been on foreign affairs and migration.

After the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB formed the Schoof cabinet, Veldkamp was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 2 July 2024, succeeding Hanke Bruins Slot. In his first days, he attended the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., where he met with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push for the EU to declare Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.