The Foreign Minister in Belgium’s outgoing Federal Government Bernard Quintin (Francophone liberal, photo above) has said in a radio interview that Donald Trump's return to the White House “is the culmination of what we has been ongoing for many years: the United States retreating into itself.”
Inauguration of President Trump: Belgian Foreign Minister calls on Europe to “do more to ensure our strategic autonomy”
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Speaking on the Francophone commercial radio station Bel RTL, Mr Quintin added “We must take this into account and it should motivate us to work even more and even harder towards ensuring our own strategic autonomy”.
Bernard Quintin spoke of the importance of reindustrialisation and the defence industry if we are to “strengthen the European arm within NATO”.
Mr Quintin clarified that what he means by strategic autonomy is not self-sufficiency. The US is an important trading partner. Trade between Belgium and the United States (imports and export) is worth around 30 billion euro per annum. Belgium buys around the same amount of goods and services from the US as the Americans buy from us. Around 120,000 jobs in Belgium depend on trade with the US and 80,000 jobs in Belgium depend on trade with Belgium.
With regard to President Trump's intention to take control of the Panama Canal, Mr Quintin was very clear. “The territorial integrity of Panama is not for sale, any more than that of Ukraine or Belgium”.
The Belgian Foreign Minister added that there is “a difference between the territorial ownership and the management of the Panama Canal”