On Friday, April 10, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz welcomed Dutch Cabinet Minister for European Affairs and International Cultural Policy, Frans Timmermans, to Brooklyn and presented him with a “Brooklyn Bridge” and proclamation in recognition of the longstanding relationship between Brooklyn and the Netherlands. Cabinet Minister Timmermans and BP Markowitz, who recently visited the town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, also toured the Jan Martense Schenck House and the Nicholas Schenck House, two historic Dutch structures reconstructed at the Brooklyn Museum.

Cabinet Minister Timmermans is in New York City this week to attend the opening of the Museum of the City of New York’s newest exhibit, “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” and the premiere of the Nederlands Dans Theater II at the Joyce Theater. He has been instrumental in coordinating the NY400 campaign, which celebrates 400 years of friendship between the Netherlands and New York City.

“I would like to thank the people of the Netherlands for the hospitality they showed me during my recent trip to the ‘original’ Brooklyn,” said BP Markowitz. “I salute the wonderful people of the Netherlands who came to our shores 400 years ago and provided us with the foundation of our government, the tenets of religious freedom, and the establishment of inalienable rights that have sustained us for four centuries.”

“I am calling on the Dutch to visit Brooklyn,” said Cabinet Minister Timmermans, “especially this year as we celebrate not only our historical ties, but also the values we share, such as open-mindedness, tolerance, democracy, hard work, freedom of speech and religion, and entrepreneurial spirit.”

For more information on NY400, visit www.ny400.org.