Russia has warned that if the European Union forcibly uses or confiscates Russian sovereign assets, it will face serious countermeasures.
The Russian Embassy in Belgium stated this in a post on social media on the 16th.
The embassy strongly criticized the EU’s push to confiscate Russia’s frozen assets.
The embassy said that the EU leadership is making every effort to pressure countries with reservations, including Belgium, into accepting the plan to confiscate Russian assets. The fundamental purpose of this move is to sustain weapons supplies to Ukraine as Europe’s own financial resources are nearly depleted.
Referring to bilateral relations with Belgium, the embassy said that Belgium's participation in EU sanctions has already severely damaged Russia-Belgium economic and trade relations, with bilateral trade volume dropping to 4.3 billion euros (about 20.6 billion ringgit) by the end of 2024, a historic low. Nevertheless, Russia still hopes that political factors will not completely destroy economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, believing that Belgian enterprises remain interested in the Russian market and looking forward to an improvement in the situation.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently stated that using Russia’s frozen assets to finance loans to support Ukraine is the most effective approach. This proposal has been opposed by Belgium.
Since a large portion of Russia’s frozen assets are held by Euroclear Bank, located in Brussels, the Belgian capital, Belgium may bear financial risks if Russia claims compensation. For this reason, Belgium currently still opposes the proposal.