US President Barack Obama has paid tribute to the fallen soldiers of World War One.
Obama is in Belgium 100 years after the outbreak of the conflict, from which, he said, there are still lessons to be learnt today.
“Our nations are part of the international effort to destroy serious chemical weapons. The same kinds of weapons that were used to such devastating effect on these very fields,” he said at the Flanders Field cemetery in Waregem.
“We thought we had banished their use to history and our efforts send a powerful message that these weapons have no place in the civilized world. And so this visit, this hallowed ground, reminds us that we must never ever take our progress for granted.”
Obama was joined for the memorial by Belgium’s King Phillipe and the country’s prime minister Elio di Rupo.
