World leaders arrive in Brussels for G7 summit

The leaders of the G7 arrived in Brussels yesterday for a summit that is expected to focus on the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Brussels airspace closed for a time as US president Barack Obama arrived at about 15.00 on the presidential plane Air Force One. He was taken by his special armoured car – nicknamed “The Beast” – to The Hotel on Boulevard de Waterloo/Waterloolaan,  the same hotel he stayed at during the EU-US summit last March.

Obama went later in the afternoon to the Royal Palace where he met prime minister Elio Di Rupo along with King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. He then joined the leaders of the other six leading industrial nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK – for a working dinner in the Justus Lipsius building on Place Schuman/Schumanplein.

The dinner was also attended by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

Traffic ground to a halt in several places in Brussels and on the Ring due to stringent security measures coupled with heavy rainfall. The inner ring was closed off for a period due to flooding in the Schuman and Stefania tunnels.

The G7 summit was original planned as a meeting of the G8 in the Russian city of Sochi, but the summit was moved to Brussels following Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Obama leaves Brussels tomorrow to attend a ceremony in Normandy to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

photo from left: European Commission president Jose Manuel Borroso, US president Barack Obama and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy during the G7 summit on Wednesday

©Laurent Dubrule/REUTERS