Prince Guillaume, Minister Bettel Celebrate Award-Winning Company Redwire

Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Foreign Trade announced that, after a programme in Detroit and Cleveland on 22 and 23 April 2024, which included visits to Guardian, BorgWarner, Avery Dennison and Goodyear, the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Xavier Bettel, paid a working visit to New York and Delaware on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 April 2024.

The ministry reported that this working visit to the United States had as an objective the deepening of relations with the main American industrial investors in Luxembourg, because the United States represents the “most important non-European commercial partner” of Luxembourg.

In New York, the Hereditary Grand Duke and Minister Bettel participated in a conference organised by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) on the subject of the development of the space economy. Several discussion panels were organised as part of this conference.

In his speech, Minister Bettel returned to the geopolitical challenges facing the world, emphasising the importance of close cooperation and respect for international law, including in the world of space.

“For more than 30 years, Luxembourg has been a pioneer in the use of space for commercial and cooperative purposes. One of the fundamental pillars of Luxembourg's strategy for developing the space sector is to work to establish fair conditions of competition at the international level. Our goal is to progress with other nations by encouraging the development of collaborations between commercial players. We are convinced that all stakeholders must play their role to advance the ‘New Space’ economy for the benefit of humanity, while ensuring respect for sustainability in space,” emphasised Minister Bettel.

Interviews with the directors of Redwire and the American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), owner of the Eurofoil Luxembourg company, were also on the programme.

The delegation then participated in the eleventh Luxembourg-American Business Award ceremony. Organised by the Luxembourg-American Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in New York, the business award recognises every two years American companies established in the Grand Duchy for their role and contribution to the Luxembourg economy. Previous winners include Amazon, Goodyear, Guardian, Avery Dennison Corporation, Husky Injection Molding Systems, Delphi Corp, Airtech Advanced Materials Group, Ampacet Corporation and DuPont.

For this 2024 edition, the prize was awarded to Redwire, whose European site in Luxembourg designs and develops robotic arms for orbital and free flight missions to support and enable activities such as maintenance and refuelling of satellites, manufacturing in space or even debris capture.

At the award ceremony, Luxembourg’s Hereditary Grand Duke, Prince Guillaume, said: “Tonight, we celebrate Redwire for its remarkable achievements in the space industry and its contribution to the commercial relationship between the United States and Luxembourg. We honour a forward-looking American company. For the first time, in fact, the Luxembourg-American Business Award is awarded to a company whose activities lie beyond our land borders, a company which reaches out to the stars. This is not a coincidence or a development out of nowhere. Luxembourg has invested heavily in the space industry, fostering an environment conducive to business prosperity. Our history has taught us not to rest on our achievements and to think outside the box, and our political leaders have always been able to anticipate the economic changes that would influence our economy.”

The Luxembourg delegation, chaired by the Hereditary Grand Duke and led by Minister Bettel, then went to Wilmington to meet the managers of DuPont, an industrial company active in the Grand Duchy since 1962.