2023-08-15 13:13:01
foreign minister
Baerbock cancels trip to the Pacific region – breakdown planes are retired
Status: 3:13 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
After repeated breakdowns on the plane – Baerbock breaks off the trip to the Pacific region
Twice within 24 hours, Annalena Baerbock tried in vain to get to Australia with an Airbus that was ready to fly. The Foreign Minister is now canceling the week-long business trip altogether.
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Twice within 24 hours, Annalena Baerbock tried in vain to get to Australia with an Airbus that was ready to fly. She broke off the week-long business trip on Tuesday morning. The troubled government planes are to be retired.
The Bundeswehr draws consequences from the breakdown of the government plane on the trip of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The two A340 aircraft will be phased out early, an Air Force spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. The “Spiegel” and the “Bild” had previously reported that the planned phase-out would be brought forward.
“We will prematurely decommission the two A340s as soon as possible, that is, in the coming weeks,” said a spokesman. According to previous plans, the two Airbus A340s should be retired in September 2023 and at the end of 2024. Instead, the existing, more modern A350 will be used for long-haul routes in the future.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously broken off her planned trip to Abu Dhabi for a week-long visit to the Pacific region. The Bundeswehr flight readiness machine had the same breakdown twice within 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday. After takeoff, the landing flaps might no longer be retracted. The surprising cancellation fell on Tuesday morning.
“We checked and planned until the very end, but unfortunately it was no longer possible to logistically represent the planned travel stations of the Indo-Pacific trip following the failure of the flight readiness aircraft with the options still available,” said a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office. The Green politician was originally expected to visit Australia, New Zealand and the island republic of Fiji.
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According to information from her delegation, Baerbock should have taken a scheduled flight from the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, with her entourage directly to the Australian metropolis of Sydney in the morning because of the defective Air Force machine. But that obviously turned out to be impractical.
That night, Baerbock’s delegation and the journalists traveling with them were asked to meet in the hotel lobby at 8:00 a.m. for departure for the airport. The decision to cancel the trip, which came as a complete surprise at the time, was only made when the entire entourage was already standing in the lobby, ready to leave.
Baerbock himself wrote on X (formerly Twitter): It was logistically impossible to continue the Indo-Pacific journey without the defective plane. “This is beyond annoying.”
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The delegation spoke of a difficult decision in the end. “It’s all very unfortunate,” it said. In the coming months it will be important to repair the damage caused. High-ranking officials are expected to travel to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji for talks and important appointments. The canceled trip must be reworked. The Indo-Pacific remains a priority for the federal government.
Like her delegation, Baerbock will now return to Berlin by scheduled flight. She drove with part of the delegation to Dubai, around 150 kilometers away, and flew from there. However, their exact route for the return journey has not been published for security reasons.
Scholz defends readiness to fly, left-wing politician calls for abolition
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said on Monday evening on the sidelines of a public discussion in Potsdam on Baerbock’s plane breakdown: “I think we have a very good readiness to fly with very good equipment that is available and it is also properly maintained. And of course things can go wrong.” He added: “The important thing is that the technicians recognize everything in good time and that’s how it was here.”
“It’s just embarrassing that the foreign minister mightn’t continue her trip,” said FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann to the editorial network Germany (RND) regarding the new incident. She called for the procurement of new machines for flight readiness.
The left budget politician Gesine Lötzsch urged that the willingness to fly should be completely abolished. This is “expensive, unreliable and causes an oversized ecological footprint,” said Lötzsch to the “Spiegel”. She advocated that members of the government should use scheduled flights in the future. “My experience is that there are enough reliable airlines that the federal government can book,” said Lötzsch.
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