Russian diamonds: Belgian Parliament calls for ban on imports into EU

Belgian MPs voted for a motion calling for a ban on imports of Russian diamonds into Europe, a measure intended as a “strong signal” after a wish expressed in March 2022 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“After such a strong signal from the Belgian Parliament, I do not see how diamonds could be ignored in the eleventh EU sanctions package” targeted at Russia, green MP Samuel Cogolati, one of the politicians who advocated the motion, told the AFP agency on Wednesday.

A month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Zelensky, aware that the Belgian city of Antwerp is a major hub for the world's rough diamonds trade, called on Belgium to hit Russian financial interests by stopping diamond imports: “I think that peace is much more valuable than diamonds (...) So help us,” said the Ukrainian President on March 31, 2022 in a video-conference, to the Belgian Parliament.

The motion voted on by the Belgian parliamentary commission indicated that “about 85% of rough diamonds” from all over the world, as well as “half of all polished diamonds and 40% of industrial diamonds” pass through Antwerp.

And that Russia, the world's largest diamond producer, rakes in “some $4 billion in revenue each year from its rough diamonds exports.” The finger was pointed notably to Russian company Alrosa, led by a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused of using its profits to “finance the war in Ukraine.”

Until now, the Belgian government had expressed reservations about a possible ban on diamond imports, fearing that trade would move to other centres like Dubai, at the expense of Antwerp.

The parliamentary motion called on the Belgian government to “explicitly advocate, within the EU Council, the introduction of an import ban relating to both direct and indirect trade in Russian diamonds.”

This request must also be put before the G7 (of which three EU countries are members), the motion further stated. The topic could be discussed at the next G7 meeting, scheduled on May 19-21 in Hiroshima, Japan.

The Belgian motion, voted on Tuesday with bi-partisan support at the External Relations Committee, is due to be submitted to parliament in early May, according to Cogolati. But the outcome “is no longer in doubt” after the unanimous support it received in the first vote.