Shorouk Express
The port of Antwerp is one of Europe’s main gateways for illicit drug shipments, and Noem and De Wever were on site to discuss boosting cooperation between Belgium and the U.S. in the fight against narcotics trafficking.
Noem, a longtime conservative ally of Trump, noted that the collaborative action will involve sharing data and security information, and dealing with shipping companies.
Talking to media ahead of the meeting, De Wever said the U.S. side requested the meeting, and he saw it “as a sign of appreciation for years of [his] global lobbying.”
“I think Europe should focus a lot more on European cooperation on one hand, and on cooperation with our friends in the United States in order to crush the business model of organized crime. We must do this because drug criminals know no borders at all,” said De Wever, a Flemish nationalist who spent more than ten years as mayor of Antwerp before becoming Belgian prime minister.
Both the U.S. and Belgium have faced an epidemic of drug trafficking and narcotics-related violence, and authorities have struggled to get to grips with the problem.
The Belgian port city of Antwerp, which in the first quarter of 2025 overtook Rotterdam in container output, has witnessed a stark increase in drug-related shootings and explosions amid the surging drug traffic.
