Belgian Foreign Policy Conference

Every year, the Belgian Foreign Policy Conference convenes the Belgian and wider Brussels-based strategic community to debate responses to the key challenges facing Belgium, the EU, and NATO. 2023 can rightly be called a “geopolitical year”. War in Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa forced European decision-makers to focus once again on geopolitics as one of the drivers of strategy. The 2023 Belgian Foreign Policy Conference will analyse the fundamental geopolitical implications of these events and propose strategies for the future.

Programme

14.30-15.00   Registration

15.00-15.30   Keynote Speech by Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, introduced by Pol De Witte, Director-General of Egmont

15.30-16.30   Panel 1: War and Geopolitics to the East

Chair: Jeroen Cooreman, Director-General for Bilateral Affairs, Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs

• Dr. Sven Biscop, Director ‘Europe in the World’ at the Egmont Institute & Professor at Ghent University
• Lieutenant-General Frederik Vansina, Vice Chief of Defence
• Dr. Olesya Tkacheva, Associate Professor, Department of International Affairs and Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

16.30-17.00   Coffee

17.00-18.00 Panel 2: War and Geopolitics to the South

Chair: Prof. Dr. Nina Wilén, Egmont Institute & Lund University

• Bernard Siman OBE, Egmont Institute & Belgian Royal Military Academy
• Joost Hiltermann, MENA Program Director, International Crisis Group
• Dr. Michel Liégeois, Professor International Relations, Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve

18.00-18.15   The European Perspective by Ms Maryem van den Heuvel, Director General for External Relations, EU Council’s General Secretariat