“Put obstacles in our way”
Baerbock’s plane gets stuck in Rio de Janeiro
February 22, 2024, 11:27 p.m
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Foreign Minister Baerbock was just praising the G20 as a driver of reform in international relations, then suddenly her plane got stuck in Rio de Janeiro. The captain suspects that “the Brazilians are putting obstacles in our way.” It is not the Green politician’s first flight mishap.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has again suffered a delay in one of her flights abroad. The Green politician originally wanted to leave for New York at 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 start 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’ve never experienced anything like that. I’m sorry.”
At around 7 p.m. the plane took off on the nine-hour flight to New York. Baerbock wants to speak there this Friday, among other things, at meetings of the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council on the second anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Lots of experience with breakdown flights
It was only in January that Baerbock, who had often been affected by problems on business flights, 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.
Baerbock had previously described the G20 round as a “reform engine” within international institutions such as the United Nations. “If we want to meet the complex challenges of the 21st century, our multilateral institutions must not remain stuck in the last century,” said the Green politician in a debate among G20 foreign ministers on reforms of international political organizations and the international financial structure. “I believe that the G20 can and must play a decisive role in this reform process.”