Plenty of corona week in Wetstraat, but Annelies Verlinden is in the US
Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon (N-VA) is in Catalonia, but will return tomorrow: "He can perfectly prepare and read in, also from abroad", according to his entourage. Because tomorrow it will be the traditional high mass of the corona approach: the Consultation Committee.
For once, no Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) will be seen there, but with Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld) the familiar face in the corona approach. Because Verlinden is in Washington DC and New York this week.
Visits to the US have been difficult so far: the country kept the borders for the EU quite closed, due to Covid. But since last week it was possible again and Verlinden was the first to travel to the US, "to show how important the cooperation with the American colleagues is", diplomats whispered to Belga.
Verlinden, in a previous life business lawyer at DLA Piper, a large international firm with many American clients, sees this week the Secret Service, the FBI, the DEA and Fema. And there's a meeting with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Joe Biden's team. Incidentally, with her portfolio of 'Democratic renewal', she will also make contacts about the 'summit of democracy' that Biden organizes in December, a virtual congress.
Minister Verlinden wants to convey the message "that investing in safety and security is equivalent to investing in more cooperation". She is also going to the UN in New York, and she is going to lay flowers on a memorial plaque for the Belgian victim of a terrorist attack in October 2017.
This way everyone puts their accents, with foreign trips. Because in addition to Jambon in Catalonia and Verlinden in the US, Rudi Vervoort (PS), the Brussels prime minister, traveled to Cuba last week, an important destination apparently.
Because although it is still a solid dictatorship, Vervoort paid an official working visit to the Cuban capital Havana, in the context of the 16th 'Belgian Week' that takes place there. And he was going to "strengthen the cooperation agreement between Brussels and Havana". Vervoort, like Jambon, will be back in time for the Consultation Committee tomorrow.