Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration, and Tunisians Abroad Mohamed Ali Nafti summoned Josephine Frantzen, ambassador of the Netherlands to Tunisia, on Thursday at the ministry’s headquarters to protest over breaking diplomatic rules.
The ambassador’s summoning follows instructions from President Kaïs Saïed to deliver “a formal protest regarding her failure to respect the rules of diplomatic work, and calling on her to adhere to diplomatic norms and refrain from any interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs,” according to official sources in the capital.
The Tunisian authorities reportedly accused the Dutch diplomat of breaching fundamental principles of diplomatic conduct. The minister urged her to strictly observe established protocols and to refrain from any actions that could be construed as interference in domestic matters.
This latest summoning of a European diplomat comes amid a period of strained relations between Tunis and several European missions.
A few days earlier, the European Union ambassador to Tunisia, Giuseppe Perrone, had been similarly summoned by the president over initiatives deemed inconsistent with diplomatic obligations.
AK/sf/lb/as/APA