Germany: Foreign minister puts climate high up on agenda
December 9, 2021
New German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has begun her inaugural trip to some of Germany's neighbors. First stop: Paris. She has pledged to put international climate policies front and center.
German foreign ministers and chancellors typically travel to Paris for a first visit after taking officeImage: Gonzalo Fuentes/REUTERS
"I'm going to give international climate policies the space they deserve on the diplomatic agenda from day one," the foreign minister, a member of the Green Party, said in a statement.
"The most important task in diplomacy is preventing, containing and preferably solving crises," Baerbock added. "And no crisis is a greater threat to the future of humanity than the climate crisis."
Baerbock headed to Brussels next and will visit Germany's eastern neighbor Poland on Friday.
What did Baerbock say in Paris?
Like previous German foreign ministers, Baerbock made Paris the first destination on her inaugural tour of European capitals. Baerbock called this not only a favored tradition, but also important due to the fact that "Germany has no closer friend than France."
Advertisement
She met with her French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and said in a press conference afterward that they had discussed the two countries' shared goals as well as climate policy, the crisis at the Poland-Belarus border and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Female foreign ministers: Role models for Germany's Annalena Baerbock?
Green party co-leader Annalena Baerbock is now officially Germany's first female foreign minister. But in other parts of the world women have long held the reins as top diplomat.
Image: Thomas Imo/photothek/picture alliance
Germany's first female foreign minister
It is now official. One-time contender for the chancellory Annalena Baerbock has been appointed foreign minister by the German president. The Green party co-leader Baerbock becomes the first woman in this post, and also the youngest-ever holder of the post. She wants to shape a values-based and feminist foreign policy, she says.
Image: Thomas Imo/photothek/picture alliance
Madam Secretary from Washington
It's been over 20 years since the United States appointed its first female Secretary of State. Madeleine Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton, was key in negotiating the peace deal between Serbia and the Kosovar Albanians in 1999 in Paris. Her German counterpart at the time was Green party politician Joschka Fischer (l).
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Deghati
Ghana's top diplomat
For decades, many African countries have had female foreign office chiefs. In Ghana, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is currently in charge of diplomatic affairs — here she is seen on a visit to Istanbul in January 2020. The first female foreign minister of the West African country held the position back in 1979.
Image: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency/picture alliance
A career straddling East and West
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has been Namibia's foreign minister for almost ten years. During the apartheid era, she worked in the Soviet Union, then in the UK. After her country's independence from South Africa, she first became a member of parliament, then a minister and since 2012 she has been foreign minister. Here, Nandi-Ndaitwah receives Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Windhoek.
Image: imago/ITAR-TASS/A. Shcherbak
Waltzing with Putin
Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl danced with Lavrov's boss, Vladimir Putin, at her wedding reception in August 2018. Kneissl, who has no party affiliation and was nominated by the right-wing populist Freedom Party, has been repeatedly criticized for her closeness to the Russian president. After leaving office in 2019, she now sits on the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft.
Image: Reuters/R. Schlager
The oil curse
Oil is often the topic under discussion when Najla al-Mangusch receives state guests. The 48-year-old lawyer is foreign minister of Libya — one of the world's most important oil-producing countries. But it is partly thanks to oil that the country has experienced a bloody civil war. Here, al-Mangush receives Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Image: DHA
'Huge privilege'
Nanaia Mahuta has been New Zealand's Foreign Minister since November 2021, after having served as Minister for Maori Development. Women of Maori descent and mixed ancestry now have career opportunities that were long closed to them, Mahuta said. The post is a "huge privilege," she said. The 50-year-old is the first woman in New Zealand's parliament to have a traditional chin tattoo.
Image: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Anna Lindh: Swedish European
She was considered a contender for the post of head of government: the charismatic Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. But on September 10, 2003, an assassin stabbed Lindh in a Stockholm department store, bringing her life to an abrupt end. Today, a foundation in Anna Lindh's name promotes dialogue between the EU and the other countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Image: Fredrik Persson/dpa/picture alliance
Golda Meir: 'Lioness of Israel'
Even before the founding of the state of Israel, Golda Meir had negotiated with the Jordanian king to prevent an Arab-Israeli war — unsuccessfully. In 1956, she became foreign minister of the still-new country, and in 1969 she took the role of prime minister. Will Annalena Baerbock, who so recently wanted the German chancellorship, have a similar career trajectory?
Female foreign ministers: Role models for Germany's Annalena Baerbock?
Green party co-leader Annalena Baerbock is now officially Germany's first female foreign minister. But in other parts of the world women have long held the reins as top diplomat.
Image: Thomas Imo/photothek/picture alliance
Germany's first female foreign minister
It is now official. One-time contender for the chancellory Annalena Baerbock has been appointed foreign minister by the German president. The Green party co-leader Baerbock becomes the first woman in this post, and also the youngest-ever holder of the post. She wants to shape a values-based and feminist foreign policy, she says.
Image: Thomas Imo/photothek/picture alliance
Madam Secretary from Washington
It's been over 20 years since the United States appointed its first female Secretary of State. Madeleine Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton, was key in negotiating the peace deal between Serbia and the Kosovar Albanians in 1999 in Paris. Her German counterpart at the time was Green party politician Joschka Fischer (l).
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Deghati
Ghana's top diplomat
For decades, many African countries have had female foreign office chiefs. In Ghana, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is currently in charge of diplomatic affairs — here she is seen on a visit to Istanbul in January 2020. The first female foreign minister of the West African country held the position back in 1979.
Image: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency/picture alliance
A career straddling East and West
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has been Namibia's foreign minister for almost ten years. During the apartheid era, she worked in the Soviet Union, then in the UK. After her country's independence from South Africa, she first became a member of parliament, then a minister and since 2012 she has been foreign minister. Here, Nandi-Ndaitwah receives Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Windhoek.
Image: imago/ITAR-TASS/A. Shcherbak
Waltzing with Putin
Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl danced with Lavrov's boss, Vladimir Putin, at her wedding reception in August 2018. Kneissl, who has no party affiliation and was nominated by the right-wing populist Freedom Party, has been repeatedly criticized for her closeness to the Russian president. After leaving office in 2019, she now sits on the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft.
Image: Reuters/R. Schlager
The oil curse
Oil is often the topic under discussion when Najla al-Mangusch receives state guests. The 48-year-old lawyer is foreign minister of Libya — one of the world's most important oil-producing countries. But it is partly thanks to oil that the country has experienced a bloody civil war. Here, al-Mangush receives Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Image: DHA
'Huge privilege'
Nanaia Mahuta has been New Zealand's Foreign Minister since November 2021, after having served as Minister for Maori Development. Women of Maori descent and mixed ancestry now have career opportunities that were long closed to them, Mahuta said. The post is a "huge privilege," she said. The 50-year-old is the first woman in New Zealand's parliament to have a traditional chin tattoo.
Image: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Anna Lindh: Swedish European
She was considered a contender for the post of head of government: the charismatic Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. But on September 10, 2003, an assassin stabbed Lindh in a Stockholm department store, bringing her life to an abrupt end. Today, a foundation in Anna Lindh's name promotes dialogue between the EU and the other countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Image: Fredrik Persson/dpa/picture alliance
Golda Meir: 'Lioness of Israel'
Even before the founding of the state of Israel, Golda Meir had negotiated with the Jordanian king to prevent an Arab-Israeli war — unsuccessfully. In 1956, she became foreign minister of the still-new country, and in 1969 she took the role of prime minister. Will Annalena Baerbock, who so recently wanted the German chancellorship, have a similar career trajectory?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
9 images1 | 9
What did Baerbock discuss in Brussels?
EU foreign policy chief Josep Fontelles welcomed Baerbock as the new foreign minister in Brussels.
"It's not by coincidence that I came here to Brussels on my first day in office," she told reporters during a press conference, speaking in English, unusually for a leading German politician, and calling herself a true European at heart.
As with her previous stop, Baerbock discussed several pressing issues facing the bloc.
With regards to the situation at the Poland-Belarus border, she said: "We agreed that the EU must maintain pressure on the regime in Minsk."
"And we also underlined our common solidarity towards Ukraine," the foreign minister added.
Following her meeting with Borrell, Baerbock also met with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.
She said in a joint press conference that the new German government supports NATO's commitments in Eastern Europe, but added that "the tensions show how necessary it would be to revive the NATO-Russian council, and we are ready to do so."
"The most important thing for me during this inaugural visit is to listen to our closest partners. We won't pursue our own ideas and interests over the heads of our neighbors, and definitely not at their cost," she said.
She went on to stress the importance of the European Union's "basic values," adding, "We cannot allow Europe's foundations to crumble away, in particular with the rule of law and human rights."
Germany's new government: Dawn of a modern age?
26:01
This browser does not support the video element.
Baerbock will visit Warsaw on Thursday, where the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party has been at loggerheads with the EU over the independence of the Polish judiciary.
Who is Annalena Baerbock?
Baerbock had run as the chancellor candidate for the Green Party in September's general election in Germany. While surfing a brief wave of popularity after the announcement of her candidacy, she later fell in the polls partly owing to claims of plagiarism in a book launched to coincide with the campaign.
Nevertheless, the Green Party achieved its highest ever share of the vote, coming in third behind the Social Democrats and former Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
After several months of negotiations, the Greens, the SPD and the Free Democrats (FDP) formed a three-way coalition that was voted in on Wednesday.
