Journalist Hadja Lahbib to serve as Belgium's next foreign minister

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) - Belgium on Friday appointed a seasoned journalist as its next foreign minister, local media reported.

Hadja Lahbib, the former news anchor of Belgium's public broadcaster RTBF, was chosen to succeed Sophie Wilmes after she formally resigned, according to the country's Flemish-language broadcaster VRT.

The development was announced at a press conference in Brussels by Georges-Louis Bouchez, the chairman of the Reformist Movement (MR), of which Lahbib is also a member.

"I have no political experience, but I know the area. I was in the field as a reporter," Lahbib said during the press conference, referring to her time as a correspondent in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, among other places.

Lahbib, the daughter of an Algerian family, was born in the Belgian town of Boussu in 1970.

She received university training in journalism and communications and worked for years for the French-language RTBF. Initially, she reported from Afghanistan and the Middle East but later became a news anchor with RTBF.