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Foreign Minister Baerbock on her arrival in Doha on Tuesday

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

Double travel bad luck for the Foreign Minister: Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has to make an unplanned overnight stay in Qatar's capital Doha because of a defect in the government plane. Their replacement plane is also cancelled for the time being. Already on Monday, there had been a technical breakdown on the regular government plane, which is why the departure of the minister from Berlin to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) was delayed by a few hours.

It was a defect in a wheel, which made it necessary to replace it with a spare part, said a spokesman for the Foreign Office in Doha. The departure with the repaired machine to Berlin is now scheduled for Thursday morning.

Instead of going directly to the airport as planned, Baerbock and her delegation had previously had to drive back to the hotel after a press conference with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Gulf Emirate of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Peace and human rights on the agenda

During her visit to the Gulf region, Baerbock wanted to promote peace solutions in Yemen and Sudan. "The fact that Saudi Arabia is now relying on talks with the Houthis in Yemen is the right first step," she said before leaving.

In Qatar, Baerbock and her Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani signed a memorandum of understanding on a new "strategic dialogue" between their two countries, despite open differences on human rights issues. This form of exchange with the emirate pursues the goal of "working even more closely together and exchanging ideas in the future," Baerbock said in Doha.

Again and again breakdowns - also because of rodents

Baerbock is the first member of the government to have unscheduled stays due to a breakdown in a Bundeswehr flight readiness aircraft. For example, in November 2018, the Luftwaffe Airbus "Konrad Adenauer" with the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the then Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on board had to turn back on the way to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Among other things, the radio system was paralyzed. "It was a serious disruption," Merkel commented at the time. Both flew line to Argentina.

In October 2018, rodents nibbled on important cables of the "Adenauer" during a stop in Indonesia. Scholz was returning from the meeting of the International Monetary Fund on a scheduled flight. In December 2016, then-Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) was stranded on her way to Mali. Due to a computer problem with her A340 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, she had to spend the night there.

aeh/AFP/dpa