Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has to turn around shortly before the destination on the way to Djibouti and land in Saudi Arabia. The flight readiness was missing an important permit.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock once again had to make an unplanned stopover while traveling. Due to a lack of an overflight permit for Eritrea, the Airbus 321 aircraft with the Green Party politician and her delegation on board had to turn around 2 p.m. German time on Wednesday on the way from Berlin to Djibouti in East Africa and land in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Baerbock and the delegation were also supposed to spend the night in the city on the west coast of Saudi Arabia.
Flexibility in a region full of challenges
“When things happen that weren’t actually planned, you have to be flexible,” said the minister pragmatically after landing in Jeddah. In a crisis region, not everything can run the way it does in normal, peaceful times, said the minister. Now we should replan accordingly. Baerbock wanted to hold talks in Djibouti, Kenya and South Sudan by Friday against the backdrop of the bloody power struggle in Sudan.
Baerbock cancels visit to Djibouti
In the evening, delegation circles said: “After the refueling stop in Jeddah, the trip will continue tomorrow with the Kenya part of the program.” After her unscheduled stopover in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, she decided not to visit Djibouti.
Baerbock actually wanted to meet her colleague Mahamud Ali Yussuf in Djibouti on Wednesday and visit the city’s port on Thursday morning. Now she flies from Saudi Arabia directly to Nairobi. Among other things, the Foreign Minister wants to visit a training center in the Kenyan capital. A meeting with President William Samoei Ruto is also planned.
With the trip she wanted to make it clear to the many neighboring countries “that we not only see concerns, but also that we don’t forget the people there, especially with a view to the war in Sudan,” emphasized Baerbock. That’s why it’s important to her “to be here, even if everything can’t always go as planned as we might be used to in other areas.” One must remember that “in these geopolitical times, which are not only challenging but dramatic, a stopover at a place that is not planned is really the smallest problem.”
No overflight clearance
Before landing in Jeddah, the plane had circled over the Red Sea for more than an hour. “Despite all our efforts, we unfortunately did not receive clearance to fly over Eritrea,” said the flight captain. You therefore have to “bite the bullet” and move to Jeddah. The delegation said that issuing an overflight permit was also difficult because there was a power outage in the Eritrean Foreign Ministry. There were therefore no alternative options for another flight route.
It was not unusual for overflight permits to only be issued during the course of the flight, it was said. However, the Foreign Office was only informed in the morning, shortly before departure, that no such approval was available for the originally planned aircraft. It was decided to rely on the corresponding approval being granted during the flight.
Discussions against the backdrop of the bloody conflict in Sudan
The minister said it was important to her to travel to Djibouti about her actual destination – “with a view of this strait of only 27 kilometers between Djibouti and Yemen, from where the Houthis launch their attacks.” In doing so, she wanted to make it clear “that we as Europeans, as the Federal Republic of Germany, take responsibility for free navigation and for the security of the Red Sea.” The situation in the Red Sea is causing massive instability for world trade and the region.
Discussions on sea lane security
The minister described the military mission planned by the EU to protect civilian shipping traffic in the Red Sea as an important contribution to the stability of the entire region. “It is important to me to emphasize that it is a protection mission for the ships on site, so it is a defensive mission,” said the Green politician in Jeddah. The European mission would “if it is decided on as such, there would be no attacks on Yemen.” However, the right to individual and collective self-defense will apply.
Source: Stern
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