Prince Laurent – younger brother to Philippe, king of the Belgians – has a history of contentious meetings with foreign powers and faces a 10% fine from his endowment of €308,000 (£280,000) a year. Last year the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, banned the prince from unauthorised talks with senior foreign officials after a series of unapproved excursions. Laurent of Belgium (@Laurent_of_B) 19/7/2017Commemoration of 90th anniversary of the founding of the chinese people's liberation army. He is due to give his side of the Chinese incident to the prime minister in September but the conservative Flemish party, the N-VA, is insisting he face the consequences of his actions. “I will therefore question the prime minister about this incident and I assume that he is giving the appropriate consequences.”• This article was amended on 8 August 2017.

Source: The Guardian August 08, 2017 11:09 UTC