Airbus A400M;
Credit: EMA
Luxembourg's Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs have confirmed that Luxembourg is stepping up its activities in relation to the ongoing political turmoil in Afghanistan.
As part of the Luxembourg participation, François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and Franz Fayot, Minister of Cooperation, have jointly decided to strengthen Luxembourg's commitment and to implement all the possible means to contribute to the effort to evacuate the eight Luxembourg citizens and residents.
It was thus decided to send a member of the Luxembourg army as well as a member of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to Kabul airport in order to strengthen Luxembourg's participation in the on-site coordination of the efforts made for the evacuation of European nationals and residents still in Afghanistan. Faced with the risk of a complete withdrawal of international troops from Kabul airport within a few days, the three ministers hope in this way to maximise the chances of a successful evacuation of the eight Luxembourg citizens and residents in Afghanistan.
The Defence Directorate has also confirmed that the Luxembourg A400M military aircraft, engaged for a few days as part of the evacuation operations alongside other planes of the Belgian-Luxembourg binational unit, has left the Islamabad International Airport (Pakistan) late morning (on Tuesday 24 August) and is currently on its way to the military airport of Melsbroek (Belgium) with 93 European nationals and residents evacuated from Afghanistan on board.
