‘Debacle’: German minister cancels trip to Australia, missing World Cup semi-final

Germany’s foreign minister offered a scathing rebuke after scrapping high-level talks with the Albanese government, causing her to miss the women’s World Cup semi-final.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock cancelled high-level talks in Australia after two aborted takeoff attempts on ageing Luftwaffe aircraft after a lay over in Abu Dhabi.

In what was labelled a “debacle” by German media, Baerbock abandoned her week-long tour of the Indo-Pacific, in which she was scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Penny Wong before continuing to New Zealand.

Baerbock, who left Germany Sunday in the hopes of making the women’s World Cup semi-final, confirmed on Twitter the “more than annoying” U-turn back to Berlin on a commercial flight.

“We tried everything but unfortunately it’s logistically not possible to carry out my Indo-Pacific travel (plans) without the defective plane,” the minister wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Wir haben alles versucht: leider ist es logistisch nicht möglich, meine Indo-Pazifik-Reise ohne den defekten Flieger fortzusetzen. Das ist mehr als ärgerlich. 1/2

— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) August 15, 2023

The plane suffered an outage after refuelling in Abu Dhabi, leaving her stranded for hours while crews attempted to fix issues with wing flaps on the 23-year-old Airbus A340. While the flight eventually took off, it had to return to Abu Dhabi “for security reasons” when the defect resurfaced.

Baerbock was due to meet her counterpart, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s calls during the NATO summit in Vilnius for increased ties between Australia and Germany.

The Australian foreign ministry said it shared “Minister Baerbock’s disappointment” over this week’s aborted trip.

“We look forward to welcoming her to Australia in the future,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was due to meet her Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, in Canberra. Picture: Getty Images

While a mere disappointment in Australia, the scrapped tour was eviscerated in Germany as “embarrassing” and a “fiasco”. Baerbock is the latest in a series of German officials that have been left stranded by the Luftwaffe air force’s ageing aircraft.

The RND media network wrote in an opinion piece that the “debacle” was turning Germany “into a laughing stock”, adding that it caused political damage.

“It’s simply embarrassing that the foreign minister couldn’t continue her trip,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of Germany’s parliamentary defence committee, told German media.

In response, the Luftwaffe announced the early retirement of its whole A340-300 fleet.

“We will take the two A340s out of service as soon as possible, i.e. in the coming weeks ahead of schedule,” the Luftwaffe wrote on X.

The embarrassing incident caused A340-300 into an early retirement. Picture: AFP

The same A340-300 thwarting Baerbock’s travel plans also delayed former chancellor Angela Merkel’s trip to a G20 summit in 2018, that time due to an electronic fault.

Earlier that year, then finance minister and current chancellor Olaf Scholz had to take a commercial flight home from Indonesia after the same plane was grounded because rodents had chewed through some of its cables.

The government purchased three new A350s for 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in 2019 to update the fleet and had planned to phase out the plane carrying Baerbock by the end of 2024.

“With the A350s, the air force has robust and modern aircraft at its disposal for long-haul operations,” the Luftwaffe said.