Belgian Government Declared 'No Conflict with Ukraine Due to Illegal Trip of the Foreign Minister to Crimea'
Federal Minister of Justice and Acting Prime Minister of Belgium Vincent Van Quickenborne stated that Ukraine and Belgium do not have problems due to the visit of Foreign Ministry Hadja Lahbib to temporarily occupied Crimea last year.
Quickenborne told about it on Sunday on VTM.
Quickenbourne has taken over from Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in the duties of head of state while he visits the United States.
On the Ukrainian Statehood Day, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib, wrote a letter to her Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba. She expressed support for Ukraine, emphasizing that Crimea and Donbas are part of Ukraine.
According to Quickenborne, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, responded to the letter.
"On July 29 - the day before yesterday - we received a response from her colleague, Mr. Kuleba. He directly states that he does not doubt for a second that our country and Ms. Lahbib herself support the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Quickenborne said.
According to him, there are no problems between Belgium and Ukraine.
"There is no abuse of trust. We see clearly from the letters that Ukraine and Belgium are on the same page," Quickenborne added.
Hadja Lahbib had come to attend the Global Values Festival organised by the Sevastopol Lunacharsky Academic Russian Drama Theatre. In 2021, it was held on 23-25 July. Lahbib was tagged in a Facebook post about the festival which she shared on her own page with the comment "Intense moments of creation". Excerpts from a choreographic performance from the festival can be seen on her Instagram, and later she herself spoke on live TV about the festival as the main purpose of her trip.
Hadja Lahbib was appointed as the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs on 15 July, replacing Sophie Wilmès.