“Luxembourg will play its part in this common effort”
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (DP) underlined during the NATO summit that freedom is not acquired, but that it is a price and that the Ukrainian people are today paying a high price to defend their values.
NATO summit in Madrid
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (DP) underlined during the NATO summit that freedom is not acquired, but that it is a price and that the Ukrainian people are today paying a high price to defend their values.
One more step to build “the future Euro-Atlantic defence”. In a press release sent on Thursday, the Ministry of State indicates that these milestones were laid during the NATO summit in Madrid from June 28 to 30. For this international meeting, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (DP), Minister of Defense François Bausch (déi gréng) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn (LSAP) made the trip to represent Luxembourg.
The Ministry of State indicates that the Heads of State and Government meeting in Madrid adopted in particular NATO’s new Strategic Concept 2022, which allows the Alliance to equip itself with the means and guidelines necessary to face the current and future security challenges”. This document “clearly defines Russia as the most significant and direct threat to Euro-Atlantic security but also considers other emerging risks”.
A greater defense effort
Xavier Bettel declared that it was “more necessary than ever” to adopt a “new posture of deterrence and forward defense of the Alliance”. An urgent adoption to be implemented according to the Luxembourg Prime Minister because of Russian aggression in Ukraine and “the serious deterioration of the security context in Europe”. “Luxembourg will assume its part in this joint effort and we welcome the new focus of the deterrence and advanced defense posture,” assured the head of government. The latter recalled the importance of supporting Ukraine by justifying that Russian aggression towards the country of Volodymir Zelensky showed that “freedom is not automatically acquired, but that it has a price”.
Last week, François Bausch announced that Luxembourg would increase its proposed defense budget to reach 1% of GDP by 2028. Compared to 2014, the Grand Ducal defense effort will have been multiplied by 5, to reach almost 1 billion euros in six years.
The issue of climate change was also raised at the NATO summit. Allied countries have endorsed a new method for mapping greenhouse gas emissions and the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030.
“To tackle the problem of climate change, it is important to take appropriate measures immediately, to measure our greenhouse gas emissions, to improve our climate balance in the long term and to bet on technologies and forms of propulsion green innovative. Luxembourg is already active in this area and I am delighted that the subject is now recognized at its fair value at the international level,” concluded Defense Minister François Bausch.
A new iron curtain
Another issue at this summit was the green light given by the leaders of the States, members of NATO, to the accession of Finland and Sweden. Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called for the lifting of the Turkish blockade and considered that “NATO is more united and stronger than ever”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, indicated during a press conference that a new iron curtain “is already falling”. He thus took over the term that marked the history of Europe during the Cold War, and only fell with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
“This iron curtain is defined today by the Westerners themselves”, added his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makeï, whose country is an ally of Moscow in its confrontation with the West.
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