The Netherlands and the United Kingdom have a strong political and economic partnership. Over forty Dutch towns and cities are twinned with British towns and cities. Both English and Dutch are West Germanic languages, with West Frisian, a minority language in the Netherlands, being the closest relative of the English language if one excludes Scots. In addition, between 90% and 93% of people in the Netherlands claim to speak English, although a negligible percentage of British people can speak Dutch, despite Dutch being one of the easiest languages for English speakers to understand.