Belgium’s Kabul embassy to close
With the Belgian military presence in Afghanistan drawing to a close soon, the Foreign Ministry has announced that our country’s embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul is to close. The Belgian Embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad will be in charge of defending Belgian interests in Afghanistan once the Kabul embassy closes. The closure of the embassy will come before the end of January 2015.
Belgium is also to close its consulate in Canada’s biggest city Toronto. The Toronto consulate’s activities will be transferred to the Belgian Consulate in Montréal.
In a press statement released on Thursday morning, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said that the closures are part of “the optimalisation and rationalisation of our network of diplomatic and consular posts.
This discussion comes as a consequence of the savings that need to be made in all public services due to the budgetary constraints.”
The statement goes on to say that structural reforms are needed in order to allow the Foreign Ministry to continue to fulfil its role.