The contract is a part of the joint ASW frigates programme that the Netherlands and Belgium are collaborating on.

These are to be floated out to sea and sunk to become the foundations of a giant Belgian green energy development -- a world first -- which is itself, however, in choppy waters amid surging costs.

BRUSSELS — Belgium is reaching peak surrealism. A man who has spent his entire political career trying to break up the country is now on track to become its prime minister — even though he insists he ...