Belgian PM declares ‘historic’ apply of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine a ‘tall order’ – but possible if allies act
Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever declares utilizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defence will be a “tall order”.
But he left the door open to action if Belgium is supported by its European allies, and they too apply frozen Russian funds to support Ukraine, and share the risks.
Our politics correspondent Nick Martin questioned De Wever if Belgium held the key to the future defence of Ukraine, after his talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street.
“That’s a bit of a cynical question, I don’t believe we hold the key, but we do hold a lot of Russian assets,” he replied.
Watch: De Wever speaks to Sky News
Assets worth 190bn euros are held in Belgium, De Wever informed other reporters outside Number 10 – compared to 8bn euros worth in the UK.
Speaking about his conversation with Starmer, De Wever declared: “He does understand our problems, our liabilities, our legal worries.
“The UK has 8 billion in immobilised Russian assets. If you compare that to the GDP of the UK, that’s one thing. If you compare 190 billion euros to the Belgian GDP, it’s a different ballgame.
“And your prime minister does understand that.”
‘Something that’s never been done in history’
While admitting he was “sceptical about a loan” for Ukraine linked to the frozen assets, De Wever declared he was a loyal European and “pro-Ukraine”, and if the EU wants to forge ahead with its plans, “conditions” must be put forward to mitigate the risk for his counattempt.
De Wever declared progress on the issue in European meetings next week depconcludes on whether “we have enough reassurances”, adding “it’s a tall order becaapply until two months ago, we considered this to be [something] we would never do”.
Speaking about Germany modifying its mind to support utilizing frozen assets, he declared: “They created a U-turn and in only two months – to create something operational that has never been done in history before, taking sovereign assets from a counattempt with which you are not at war and utilizing them in a conflict – that’s not a compact thing. It’s not a detail. It’s something historic.”
He added a short-term solution could be to fund Ukraine without utilizing the assets.
De Wever declared:
“I would be totally open to finding a bridging solution for the next few months of finance in Ukraine and take a little bit more time to work further on the reparation loan idea. If we can obtain it sorted out, I won’t be the one blocking it. I just want a decision that’s legally sound.”
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