New destinations for Belgian-Luxemburg battalion

As can be seen from a press release from the Ministry of Defense on Thursday, the Belgian-Luxemburg Battalion received new tasks at the NATO meeting of Defense Minister in Brussels.

The goal of the meeting was the preparation for the NATO summit, which will take place in the Hague on June 24th and 25th. The NATO Defense Planning Process (NDPP) is discussed on the summit. Defense Minister Yuriko Backes (DP) also took part in Brussels.

At the meeting on Thursday, the NATO members decided on the largest upgrade program since the Cold War. During the meeting, the individual packages of the ability goals of the alliance partners were formally accepted. The NDPP wants to harmonize the plans of the 32 NATO members. « These new, ambitious target packages are part of the need to strengthen the collective deterrent and defense skills, » wrote the Ministry of Defense.

The Luxembourg’s ability package was also accepted. This includes air and rocket defense, educational and combat drones, relocated petrol stations and a rear air force base as well as the support of guest and transit countries.

In addition, the Belgian-Luxemburg defense cooperation is to be further developed. A Belgian-Luxemburg military hospital is planned for this. This hospital is a relocated hospital that is to be used on the front.

The Grand Duchy is already active in the areas of space and cyber and will further expand this under the 2025 capacity package.

On June 4, the Defense Minister took part in a meeting of the « Ukraine Defense Contact Group ». There she emphasized Luxembourg’s support for Ukraine and announced that the Grand Duchy will increase its contribution from 80 million euros to 120 million euros in 2025. « This is our highest annual contribution so far, » emphasized the DP politician.