Baerbock has to accept delays on his business flight again

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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) upon arrival in New York: “In 40 years of flight service, I have never experienced anything like this.”

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

As Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock has to travel to many countries due to her duties - but recently problems with flights have repeatedly caused delays.

This also applies to a planned onward journey from Brazil to the USA.

The Green politician originally wanted to leave for New York on Thursday around 5:30 p.m. (CET) from the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

At first there was a waiting time because the government Airbus A350-900 still had to be refueled.

After refueling was completed at around 6:30 p.m., the flight captain had to continue to put the minister off.

“It seems like the worm is in there today,” said the captain.

“We are currently trying to get clearance to begin the flight to New York.

But the Brazilians are somehow putting obstacles in our way today." At the moment it seems that clearance for departure will only be given in 30 to 40 minutes at the earliest.

»I can't tell you why that is.

In 40 years of flight service, I have never experienced anything like this.

I'm sorry."

At around 7 p.m. the plane took off on the nine-hour flight to New York.

Baerbock wanted to speak there this Friday, among other things, at meetings of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council on the second anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

The global community against Putin

On the first anniversary, the global community had already sent a strong signal against the Russian attack and passed a resolution.

In February 2023, 141 of the 193 member states voted for a resolution that called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops - a historically clear result.

A new sign of strength is not expected this year - also because that could backfire: The mood has changed since last year, explain diplomats in New York.

On the one hand, this has to do with Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, which has attracted a lot of attention.

On the other hand, some Ukrainian countries resent their voting behavior in the General Assembly regarding Gaza: In December, Kiev abstained when the largest UN body voted on a draft resolution for a ceasefire in the Middle East.

The fact that Baerbock was able to fly off too late is not the first incident.

It was only in January that she had to make an unplanned stopover on a trip to East Africa.

Because there was no overflight permit for Eritrea, their plane had to turn around on the way from Berlin to Djibouti in East Africa and land in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

There had also been delays in business flights before.

mrc/dpa