Luxembourg Delegation Flies to NATO Summit on Depeche Mode Plane

The delegation of Luxembourg arrived at the NATO summit in Vilnius on a plane recently used by the band Depeche Mode during their world tour.

AP journalist Philip Crowther wrote about this on Twitter.

Crowther noticed that when the Luxembourg officials were getting off the plane at Vilnius airport, a large red skull with 4 letters underneath it DM - MM was visible on board the aircraft.

"Here's a little Luxembourg anecdote from the NATO summit in Vilnius. In the photos of the arrival of Foreign Minister Asselborn and Prime Minister Bettel, you can see a big red skull in the plane used by peaceful little Luxembourg. It turns out that they chartered the plane that was also used by Depeche Mode for their Memento Mori tour," the journalist wrote.

As RTL explains, the Luxembourg army tried to book the flight through the European Air Transport Command, but it was unable to find a private jet for the international event, so Luxembourg had to charter another available aircraft.

After a five-year hiatus, Depeche Mode is currently on a world tour in support of their new album, Memento Mori. On Wednesday, they fly to Rome for their next concert.

Luxembourg is strongly opposed to granting Ukraine membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. According to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, there can be no "green light" from the Grand Duchy while there is a war in Ukraine. The Prime Minister of Luxembourg explains this by Article 5 of NATO, according to which other NATO member states would have to enter the war on the side of Ukraine.

Xavier Bettel also clarifies that he is keen to help Ukraine restore peace in the country. And when this is achieved, it could speed up the process of getting an invitation to join NATO. By the way, the Prime Minister sees EU membership in a similar way. 

It is worth reminding that Luxembourg is a member of the coalition that will train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.

On the eve of the Vilnius summit, it became known that NATO had prepared an exception for Luxembourg to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence due to the country's specifics.

The country will be allowed to spend not 2% of GDP, but 2% of the country's gross national income. In the case of Luxembourg, this would be about 1.7% of GDP.  

It should be noted that Luxembourg's army is very small (about 900 soldiers), but the country is very wealthy. However, it is worth noting that in 2022, Luxembourg had the lowest defence spending among all its allies - only 0.62% of GDP.