The Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Mr. Tjaco T. van den Hout, has announced his intention to resign from his office. The announcement was made at the 178th meeting of the PCA's Administrative Council on April 22, 2008. The President of the Administrative Council, H.E. Mr. Maxime Verhagen – whose Presidency, as laid out in the PCA's constitutive conventions, derives from his position as the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs – nominated H.E. Mr. Christiaan Kröner as a successor. Mr. Kröner is currently the Netherlands' Ambassador to the United States.

The Council accepted the resignation of Mr. Van den Hout, who will return to diplomatic service. He will remain in office, however, until Mr. Kröner is installed in September 2008.

Mr. Van den Hout is the eleventh Secretary-General to have served the PCA since its founding in 1899. The offices of Secretary-General of the PCA and of President of the Administrative Council, its governing body, are linked with the role that the Netherlands plays as host state of the PCA, a treaty based intergovernmental organization.

Tjaco T. van den Hout, the eleventh Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration