Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende travels to Washington today, to meet US President Barack Obama.

Both leaders will be keen to give the image of two trusted allies who can work together to tackle difficult issues.

Ruth Oldenziel, American Studies lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, says it will be “an entertaining meeting between friends”, with three key items on the agenda: the economic crisis, Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan.

Door ajar
“The Dutch have deployed 1600 troops to southern Afghanistan and those troops are scheduled to retreat in August 2010,” Ms Oldenziel explains.

“And there’s an enormous pressure on the Dutch to stay longer. Because Obama really needs all the allies he can get. Afghanistan and Pakistan are really the key to his foreign policy. Mr Balkenende has stated that the mission will end next year, but he’s never shut the door entirely.”

America watcher Oldenziel stresses that the Netherlands is one of the US’s staunchest allies. In recent decades, the Dutch have been e bridge builders between the big powers and the smaller countries. The Amsterdam stock exchange ranks within the top ten of the world’s main financial markets. This, she says, is why the Dutch were invited to the G8 Summit in Italy earlier this month.

Finance and climate
President Obama is seeking a global leadership role when it comes to setting out financial and climate change policies.

“He wants to connect the economic crisis to climate change issues. That is not something that the Dutch are necessarily prone to do,” says Ms Oldenziel.

Prisoners welcome after all?
And finally, there is Guantánamo Bay, the controversial US military base in Cuba, which will be closed down, as Mr Obama announced on the first day of his presidency. But what to do with the terrorist suspects imprisoned there? So far, the US hasn’t been able to persuade many other countries to take them in.

“The Netherlands has said ‘No, we’re not taking any prisoners that Mr Obama wants to send abroad.’ But if you listen carefully to the [Dutch] Prime Minister, he says 'No, but there’s room for discussion'".

Transatlantic ties
During his first visit to the White House under former US President George W. Bush, Mr Balkenende was criticised for seeming to be too much in league with the conservative administration.

Ms Oldenziel puts that down to the circumstances at the time - “Mr Balkenende was still a very young prime minister” – and to the transitional Dutch outlook on the world stage “which is more geared towards American than European interests. Besides, the Dutch government has always been more ready to strike deals with a Democratic than a Republican President.”

Ms Oldenziel says the Dutch PM shouldn’t expect todays meeting to last very long. “Usually, these kinds of talks will take no more than half an hour, one hour at the most”.