Brussels Attacks Show Need to Improve International Cooperation

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that it is necessary to do everything to improve international cooperation within Europe and also beyond Europe on the security issue.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The international community should do its best to improve cooperation against terror threats following the deadly attacks carried out in Brussels in late March, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told US media in an interview on Wednesday.

"We are working with hundreds of investigators. We've been working with them for the past months. Our intelligence services are mobilized," Michel said during an interview on CNN. "And I think that we need to do everything we can do to improve international cooperation within Europe and also beyond Europe."

Prime Minister Michel’s remarks come nearly two weeks after two suicide blasts ripped through the departures hall of Brussels Airport in the northeastern municipality of Zaventem while another explosion hit the Maelbeek metro station near the headquarters of the EU institutions killing over 30 people and injuring over 300.

Michel stressed that in the fight "against these enemies who are hiding, who are more and more professional in their way, in the way they communicate — everywhere in the world, including in Belgium — there are successes and there are failures."

The Belgian prime minister also highlighted the country’s success in thwarting a jihadist plot to attack police personnel in the eastern city of Verviers. During the anti-terror operation, security forces killed two suspects and detained another, he added.

In recent months, European countries have stepped up security measures following a number of terrorist attacks, including in Paris on November 13 which killed over 100 people.