Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has assured his Belgian counterpart Yves Leterme that the Netherlands will honour the terms of the agreement on deepening the Western Scheldt estuary.

After a meeting between the two foreign ministers, Mr Verhagen said the Netherlands wants to be "a good and reliable neighbour".
 

In 2005, Belgium and the Netherlands signed The Scheldt Treaties, one provision of which concerned dredging and deepening the navigation canal in the estuary. The work was completed in 2007 on the Flemish side of the border but the Netherlands decided not to de-polder on its side of the border and the Dutch Council of State suspended the agreement on the grounds that it would damage the environment.

The Belgian government was infuriated by the Dutch Council of State decision and Foreign Minister Leterme was dispatched to solve the impasse. According to Mr Verhagen, "the Council of State ruling complicated matters but a treaty is a treaty". Minister Leterme said he was pleased by the Hague's promise to comply with the terms of the treaty "without delay".