Written by Cordula Schnuer
Published on 31.03.2022
US ambassador Tom Barrett (l.) with Chamber of Deputies president Fernand Etgen during a tour of the WSA on 31 March Photo: Micael Borges/Chamber of Deputies
US ambassador to Luxembourg Tom Barrett on Thursday urged Luxembourg to find ways to spend more on its military just days after defence minister François Bausch said the country wouldn’t achieve a Nato spending target.
Barrett was speaking during a tour of the Warehouses Service Agency (WSA) in Sanem, a military maintenance and storage depot shared between the US and Luxembourg.
“I respectfully ask that you put on your thinking caps,” Barrett told members of parliament who joined the visit. “It’s not just the numbers. Where we are in the world and the challenge to Nato and the challenge to the EU… We are being tested.”
The US Air Force from Sanem is reinforcing operations in Eastern Europe, including in support of Ukraine, said Lt. Col. Salomon Alvarez of the 86th Materiel Maintenance Squadron, which is based at Rammstein air base in Germany but also operates out of Luxembourg.
Tom Barrett, US ambassador to Luxembourg
“WSA was ready at the call,” Alvarez said, with 17 operations carried out at eight locations since December last year, when intelligence suggested an imminent Russian invasion of its neighbour.
Around 85% of the US Air Force Europe’s war reserve material is stored at the Sanem facility, such as vehicles, fuel support equipment, repair equipment and generators. The materiel does not include weapons. The Luxembourg state uses the facility for its army but also to store goods seized by the justice ministry.
All Nato members in 2014 committed to work towards spending 2% of GDP on defence. But Bausch (déi Gréng) on Monday had said that this amount is “neither realistic nor doable” for Luxembourg, given the size of its economy compared to an army of around 1,000 active soldiers.
The defence minister said the army would not open new operational units, such as an air force or navy, but would look to develop activities it has the capacity to manage in existing areas, such as intelligence and reconnaissance, space and cybersecurity.
For Luxembourg to spend 2% of GDP on defence, it would have to shell out €1.7bn a year. Bausch on Monday said he is “radically opposed” to this kind of expense. “It’s not only unrealistic. It wouldn’t make sense.”
The delegation was given a tour of the site. Members of the press were excluded from this part of the visit Photo: Micael Borges/Chamber of Deputies
But Barrett on Thursday urged Luxembourg to do more. “I do believe there is a sense of understanding in Luxembourg that, given the current state of things, we have to up the game a little here.” Burden-sharing between Nato members is “an issue of equity and fairness,” the ambassador said.
The government in 2022 is spending €464m on its defence budget, 0.6% of GDP. By 2024, this will increase to €558m, or 0.72% of GDP. Bausch warned that one-off investments into equipment would not allow the grand duchy to uphold high investments, which stem largely from operational and maintenance costs that are due annually.
Luxembourg in 2019 signed a memorandum of understanding with the US to spend €225m over ten years on the WSA depot, which employs more than 250 people with another 100 jobs to be added until 2028.
“I totally understand that Luxembourg is saying ‘we’re not going to enlarge our army’,” Barrett said. “So, what are other ways to try to reach that goal, which all members of Nato agreed to in 2014?”
The US has consistently pushed Nato allies to increase defence spending and there has been no change in tune under the Biden administration. Germany in March announced a one-time €100bn spending boost for its military, with Poland pledging to ramp up defence spending to 3% of GDP.
Romania, Lithuania and EU defence dawdlers like the Netherlands, Italy and Spain have all vowed to spend more with war raging right on the bloc’s doorstep.
Fernand Etgen, President of the Chamber of Deputies
Barrett said he is “sympathetic” to a lack of appetite in Luxembourg to increase its military budget. “I come from a part of the country where there isn’t a lot of defence spending,” he said of his home state Wisconsin, which he represented in Congress for ten years.
The tour of the WSA aimed at getting lawmakers on board. “Russia's illegitimate aggression against Ukraine has proven the necessity to further deepening the cooperation between Nato allies,” said Chamber of Deputies president Fernand Etgen (DP), adding that Luxembourg wants to be a reliable ally.
“The WSA is an important symbol of our commitment–a commitment to the historic bonds fostered with the United States, a commitment to Nato, a commitment to the collective defence of our democracies,” Etgen said.