(CNN) President Donald Trump's new US Ambassador to the Netherlands held his first press conference with Dutch media at The Hague on Wednesday, and it was awkward.

Peter Hoekstra was peppered with questions regarding claims he made in 2015 that the "Islamic movement" had brought chaos to the Netherlands -- comments he has since denied making

"Chaos in the Netherlands. There are cars being burned. There are politicians that are being burned ... and yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands," said Hoekstra at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's 2015 Restoration Weekend.

When pressed by Dutch reporters on Wednesday, Hoekstra refused to retract the statement or cite examples to back it up.

"Meneer de ambassadeur, kunt u een Nederlandse politicus noemen die de afgelopen jaren is verbrand?" Geen antwoord. Nieuwe Amerikaanse ambassadeur Pete Hoekstra had een lastige eerste ontmoeting met de Nederlandse pers. → https://t.co/8IDcPrVBPE pic.twitter.com/N0TiGaaBzj — NOS (@NOS) January 10, 2018

"Will you be visiting our 'no-go' areas?'" one reporter asked.

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