taken by Steven Vanackere. In complicated negotiations regarding the bilingual electoral unit Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde surrounding Belgian capital Brussels a deadline set by government party Open VLD was not met. Following the departure on 22 April 2010 of this party from the government Leterme had to offer the resignation of his government once again. On 26 April the resignation was accepted by the King after the appointed mediator Didier Reynders failed in his task and a general election was held in June 2010. Due to the longitivity of the negotiations for the government formation, Leterme headed a caretaker government for 589 days—the longest-such run for a developed country—until Elio di Rupo was finally appointed prime minister in December 2011. Post-premiership After Elio Di Rupo succeeded him as Prime Minister, Leterme took up the position of Deputy Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), starting 1 January 2012. Leterme still supported his party in the October 2012 municipal elections. He was the main candidate for the CD&V/N-VA list in Ypres, which maintained its absolute majority. During the election he said "Honesty commands me to tell you I cannot become mayor right away because I must honour my earlier commitment to the OECD." And so after winning the election, Leterme remained active at international level, and third runner up in the party, Jan Durnez became mayor of Ypres instead. In 2014, Leterme became secretary-general of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). On 7 March 2016 he announced his definitive departure from political life as he did not see himself able to combine it anymore with his international career. He has since taken on a number of paid and unpaid positions: Volkswagen, Member of the Sustainability Council (since 2016) Kofi Annan Foundation, Vice-Chair of the Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age (since 2018) In 2019, Leterme became co-chairman of the board of directors of the Chinese investment fund ToJoy, alongside the former Serbian president Boris Tadić and Jose Maria Figueres, former president of Costa Rica. The appointment was criticized by international relations professor Jonathan Holslag, citing the close relations between ToJoy and the Chinese political establishment. Foreign relations Lebanon On 29 November 2008, President of Lebanon Michel Sleiman discussed with Leterme the Lebanese domestic situation and its foreign relations, particularly its relations with Syria. Vietnam Leterme started a two-day visit to Vietnam Tuesday 11 August