Hamas hostages and Gaza residents
Baerbock holds crisis talks with Turkish minister
October 14, 2023, 11:29 a.m
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In Egypt, Foreign Minister Baerbock is campaigning for the release of the hostages who were kidnapped to Gaza – not only with her Egyptian counterpart, but also with her Turkish counterpart. The war in Ukraine is also an issue.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock continued her crisis talks after the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel at a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Egypt. The two ministers discussed, among other things, the joint efforts to release the German hostages kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas and the questions of humanitarian access to Gaza, according to German delegation circles.
It was a “good and concentrated conversation lasting around an hour” on the sidelines of Baerbock’s crisis visit to the Egyptian capital Cairo, it said. The Foreign Minister and her Turkish colleague “exchanged intensively their findings and conclusions from the crisis talks of the last few days.”
Another topic of discussion was support for Ukraine. The two foreign ministers agreed to maintain close contact during the current crisis. The Federal Foreign Minister and Fidan only spoke on the phone last Monday. The last meeting took place at the end of September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Egypt should help civilians
Baerbock then wanted to meet with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and the Egyptian Foreign Minister Samih Schukri. Delegation circles previously said that, in addition to the regional situation following the terrorist attacks by Hamas that began a week ago, the talks in Egypt would also focus on efforts to release the hostages kidnapped to Gaza by the Islamists.
Egypt’s humanitarian efforts for the civilian population in Gaza would also be an issue. Baerbock flew from Israel to Egypt on Friday evening.