(L-R) Yuriko Backes, Luxembourg's Minister of Defence; Lieutenant General Sollfrank;
Credit: MAE
As reported by Luxembourg's Directorate of Defence and the Ministry for Gender Equality and Diversity, Minister Yuriko Backes paid a working visit to Berlin in Germany on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 November 2024.
In her capacity as Minister of Defence, Yuriko Backes met her German counterpart, Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius. Following a reception with military honours and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Bundeswehr Memorial, the ministers had a bilateral working meeting, during which they discussed cooperation in the areas of space and cyber, cooperation within the EU and NATO, and military support for Ukraine, among other things. In the subsequent press statement, Minister Backes praised the long-standing cooperation and emphasised the importance of strengthening NATO's European pillar.
Also in her role as Defence Minister, Yuriko Backes took part in a panel discussion on "Rising to the Challenge? European Coherence on the Defensive" as part of the Körber Foundation's Berlin Foreign Policy Forum 2024. Minister Backes spoke about the contribution of small countries to the security of the Euro-Atlantic area and emphasised the importance of investments in defence, interoperability and joint procurement. "We know what needs to be done. But we have to achieve our goal faster, we have to achieve it together," she said.
Moreover, Minister Backes visited the new Bundeswehr Operational Command, the central contact point for the armed forces of friendly nations, as well as the Forest of Remembrance, a memorial site for Bundeswehr casualties in international operations.
In her role as Minister for Gender Equality and Diversity, Yuriko Backes met her German counterpart, Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth Lisa Paus. The main topics discussed were the respective priorities in the area of gender equality and diversity policy, as well as common challenges at national and multilateral level. These include efforts to resolutely counter anti-feminist and anti-LGBTIQ+ tendencies. Minister Backes noted that important instruments of Luxembourg's equality policy are the national observatory for equality, which collects and analyses data on gender equality, and the central contact point for victims of gender-based violence, on which the Ministry for Gender Equality and Diversity is working as a coordinator.
