Parliament to send delegation to 36th InterExpo Congress looking at 10/10/10

GREAT BAY--The Parliament of St. Maarten on Tuesday will discuss the participation of a delegation at the 36th InterExpo Congress, to be held on December 9–11, 2025, in The Hague, the Netherlands.

This year’s congress, titled “Fifteen Years after 10/10/10”, will examine the state of relations between Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten and the Netherlands, as well as the position of the public bodies Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba within the Kingdom. The three-day event will feature panel discussions focused on:

• Whether Kingdom tasks hinder or facilitate the autonomy of the Caribbean countries, and how the public bodies experience integration.

• Economic and fiscal autonomy: independence or dependency, and whether the new position of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius represents decolonization or reduced autonomy.

• Opportunities to increase Dutch involvement in the broad prosperity of Caribbean citizens of the Kingdom.

The congress marks fifteen years since the constitutional changes of October 10, 2010, which dissolved the Netherlands Antilles. Curaçao and Sint Maarten became countries within the Kingdom, while Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became public bodies of the Netherlands. These changes brought significant political, social, economic, and fiscal adjustments, and the congress will evaluate whether a satisfactory balance has been achieved.

The 36th InterExpo Congress will emphasize the need for reliable and culturally informed relations between the Caribbean countries, the public bodies, and the Netherlands, with active audience participation encouraged during the panel sessions.

For over 20 years, InterExpo has organized trade missions aimed at promoting business relations between the Netherlands, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. InterExpo operates across multiple industries, including sustainable trade, green energy, healthcare, fire safety, and heritage conservation.

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