Envoy says India-Netherlands share 'strong relationship'

She was quoted as saying by ANI: "It's a very strong relationship. We were one of the first countries who recognised the Independence. This has been the residents of the Dutch ambassador since '52 already. We opened our embassy already in 48, so there's a lot going on."

"There's a lot going on in the different sectors of water management, health, energy, climate, agriculture, innovation, of course, that's the core I think of our cooperation. And this year we're going to sign a strategic partnership," she said.

Speaking on the Tulip festival in Delhi, the envoy said: "Well, I arrived in India, 1.5 years ago and I could see around the G20, that the Netherlands and the city of Delhi that we teamed up to plant the tulips in the city to celebrate and we did it again last year."

" And when I saw how well the tulips are growing, I said, we should actually also include residence of the Dutch ambassador and also plant tulips here. So, that's what we did this year, plant tulips here. It was a bit scary to see if it could really work, but I think it does and we planted some tulips outside as well for the public to see and to join in the celebration of spring that's coming and clean air," she said.