The beautiful residence of Ambassador Lambert and his wife Sofie served as the setting for the reception organised to celebrate the Belgian National Day on 21 July. A festive event which brought together many diplomats, ministers, Luxembourg and Belgian elected officials, personalities from the worlds of economy, banking, finance, industry and more.
Addressing the hundreds-strong crowd in French, Flemish, German, Luxembourgish and English (and even Latin at the end!), Ambassador Lambert reflected on the strong bilateral ties between his country and the grand duchy, not to mention the large and “dynamic” local Belgian community, both on the social and professional scale.
Beginning with a retrospective on the countries’ relations, he stressed the importance of the Gäichel summit, which took place in summer 2021 and saw the signing of seven agreements, as well as the celebrations then for the centenary of the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union. He also referred to the recent which “is perhaps not the ideal agreement, but even so we succeeded to put the bar higher,” he added.
While covid-19, of course, impacted the possibility of events at the embassy, Ambassador Lambert said there was nevertheless a “silver lining” in the strengthening of the already strong Benelux ties. Forward-looking, he added, there will be plenty of upcoming economic missions and meetings to further strengthen bilateral ties. Belgium will also hold the presidency of the Council of the EU the first half of 2024 ().
Yet, even if the spirit was festive, Thomas Lambert wanted to evoke solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Members of the LUkraine association were also present at the reception. “Let’s not forget that people are dying there. We said we never wanted war on European soil again. This is unfortunately the case”, he soberly recalled.
His Excellency also wished to highlight the strong solidarity and the ties that unite the various ambassadors present in Luxembourg. Before sending a special thank you to the consulate team. “26,000 Belgians live in Luxembourg, the equivalent of a small town. To manage this, they are four, not all full-time. Kudos to them!”
Before paying tribute to his wife, an advisor, of course, but someone he says “is also the bulletproof vest that sometimes protects me from myself.”