In his nearly 20 years as Luxembourg's top diplomat, Jean Asselborn has grappled with countless crises around the globe at more than 200 meetings with a stream of European Union counterparts. 

With his ruddy face and shock of grey hair, the straight-talking 74-year-old has helped his small homeland get its voice heard in debates. 

Now, as he leaves his position after recent elections, he says his faith in diplomacy has been tested by two devastating recent events — Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel. 

"You wonder why we still believe in foreign policy and international law," Asselborn told AFP at his last meeting with EU ministers in Brussels. 

In the Middle East, he said the EU committed an "enormous error" by failing to push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

"For 10 years, it was impossible to put even a two-state solution on the agenda," he explained.

But despite the turmoil currently shaking the international order, he insisted he still believed firmly in the power of the European project. 

"Europe is still here," he said.  

"That's something. After the financial crisis, we lost no one. After Brexit, we said: 'This is going to be a disaster. Europe is going to unravel.'"

Stick to values

In his time at the helm of Luxembourg's foreign ministry, Asselborn has seen dozens of EU leaders and ministers come and go. 

Luxembourg — a tiny multilingual country where German and French are commonly spoken — has often served as a mediator between the EU's big beasts Berlin and Paris. 

Nowadays, he admitted, that may not be so true because Brussels now works increasingly in English — the bloc's most widely spoken second language.