Following the election of 2010 Rosenthal was asked to become Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Rutte–Verhagen Rosenthal accepted and resigned as parliamentary leader in the Senate and a Member of the Senate the same day he took office as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs on 14 October 2010 serving until 5 November 2012.

On 12 June 2010 Queen Beatrix nominated Rosenthal as first informateur in the 2010 Dutch cabinet formation.

[1] On 26 June the Queen replaced Rosenthal with Herman Tjeenk Willink, the Vice President of the Council of State as the new informateur.

Formateur Mark Rutte asked Rosenthal as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new cabinet.

He has been nominated by the Dutch Government to serve as the Special Envoy for the fourth International Cyberspace Conference to be held in 2015.