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Gijs de Vries on cultural relations at the Royal Society of Arts

Gijs de Vries, a Member of the ECFR Council, Member of the Board of the Netherlands Court of Audit and former EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, gave a talk on 22 October 2009 at the Royal Society of Arts as part of a lecture series to celebrate 75 years of the British Council's work in cultural relations. Mr. de Vries called for cultural diplomacy to form a central element of the European Union's external relations work, stating that "most countries have found that one way of mobilising their power of attraction is by mobilising their cultural attractiveness".

The transcript of the speech has been made available here:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/about-us/75th-anniversary/lecture-series/gijs-de-vries/