Career diplomat named as Foreign minister

Career diplomat Bernard Quintin will be Hadja Lahbib's successor as Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs, his party announced on social media on Saturday afternoon. "The international situation made it impossible to work without a full-time minister of Foreign Affairs, even for a few weeks," said Georges-Louis Bouchez, the leader of francophone liberals MR.

Lahbib begins her mandate as European commissioner for Equality and Crisis Management on Sunday. The appointment of her successor was expected. "I am honoured by this proposal and the confidence it expresses," Quintin said. "And I will do everything I can to continue Mrs Lahbib's work. The coming weeks will be intense."

"Bernard Quintin can be deployed immediately and knows the files perfectly," said Bouchez. "I am convinced that he is the right person, at the right time, in the right place."

Quintin worked as a diplomat in Warsaw, London, Kinshasa and the permanent representation to the European Union.

He moved to the European diplomatic service, where he became deputy director general for Africa, to return to Belgian diplomacy at the end of last year, as director general for European Affairs. He was in the running for EU envoy for the Great Lakes region of East Africa at the beginning of this year, but according to diplomatic sources he was not appointed due to pressure from the regime in Kigali, Rwanda.

Quintin will not hold the post for long, as negotiations to form a new federal government are progressing. A new minister should be appointed in the coming weeks.

_{Bernard Quintin meets DRC Congo president Felix Tshisekedi © BELGA PHOTO POOL BENOIT DOPPAGNE}