Heads up – Embassy 4 – January 2008

Luxembourg – The art of diplomacy

Luxembourg’s new Ambassador to London has an uncanny knack of finding himself in places when history is being made.

Hubert Wurth was Ambassador to Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed; as Ambassador to the Netherlands he also served on a special mission to the former Yugoslavia in 1996; and he was posted to the UN at the time of the terror attacks of 9/11. Even his most recent posting to France was eventful as Prime Minister Sarkozy set the country on a new path.

“But change is part of the business,” shrugs Wurth, although he does qualify that by saying the events in the Soviet Union were unprecendented.

Wurth feels privileged to have been a diplomat during such eventful times and says the lesson he draws from his career is the value of multilateral diplomacy. “We believe this is an efficient way to handle issues and to find solutions,” he says, “and not just for small countries. Certainly it makes as much sense for large countries too.”

For Luxembourg, situated on the tidemark between Germanic and Francophone Europe, multilateral cooperation is hardwired into the nation’s psyche, he says. And he firmly believes that a more cohesive Europe, as envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty, is good for the world.

But at the moment things to him feel slightly unfamiliar in Britain, he admits. “Perhaps it’s because it is an island. People drive on the other side of the road, they don’t use the same currency, they’re not part of the Schengen Area...”

In London he will do his best to make Luxembourg’s voice heard, reminding people that his country is not just a wealthy financial centre, but also a country whose heritage dates back to the Romans and the Middle Ages. It is still a power in steel production – and is generous too, donating almost 1% of its GDP to ODA.