Departed on his first foreign trip: Prime Minister De Wever drops to Kiev, with a check of 1 billion euros

Barely a month after the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky came to coffee in Wetstraat 16, our prime minister is now also in Kiev. Together with Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) and Defense Minister Theo Francken (N-VA), he will visit Ukraine on Tuesday. The fact that the prime minister is about his first real foreign journey makes the trip extra heavy. De Wever previously said that our country continues to support Ukraine for the full 100 percent. He will now also physically convey that message.

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The Belgian delegation already flew to Poland on Monday, where they took the night train to Kiev in the evening. On Tuesday she first went to Boetsja, where the Russian army made a true massacre in March 2022. Afterwards De Wever and Co. In Kiev, a flower wreath down on the wall that commemorates the fallen Ukrainian soldiers. But of course the prime minister also has a maintenance with Zelensky. Prévot and Francken see their officers again.

De Wever has a check for 1 billion euros for Zensky for extra military support. This is the proceeds from the tax that is levied on the profit on the frozen Russian credits that are parked with the financial service provider Euroclear. The support is also in the Defense Plan that Arizona has to get to this week and it counts to get the 2 percent standard of NATO. Ukraine would like Belgium to free up the funds itself – around 200 billion euros -, but Bart De Wever does not like that.

Four million drones

The slipstream of the political delegation also contains a dozen Belgian military companies and the boss of the Belgian army, Fred Vansina. After all, military cooperation is one of the priorities of the visit. Belgian companies such as Cockerill and Thales sit around the table in Kiev with Ukrainian defense companies, on Tuesday a conference will take place on military cooperation.

Ukraine has succeeded in scaling up its defense industry enormously in a short time and to produce quite cheaply. Every year no fewer than four million drones roll off the band, important in modern warfare.

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But Zensky is aiming for foreign investments to boost its military power and industry. The know -how of, among others, Belgian military companies can help with this. On the other hand, there are opportunities in Kiev for the Belgian defense industry-some players are already partly active in Ukraine. According to well -informed sources, contracts and declarations of intent will be signed on Tuesday.

No press with

It is striking that the prime minister does not take a press on his first foreign journey. Safety reasons may have played a role in this, but within the federal government you can hear that the prime minister does not want to be accompanied by journalists on his next foreign missions.

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According to insiders because De Wever is afraid of the image that many of his predecessors are: that prime ministers feel better in their SAS abroad than in the Krabben basket of the Wetstraat, and that they are the Pump and Circumstance Who belongs to such foreign visits and audiences, let it fall. De Wever and his delegation will return to Belgium on Wednesday.