Today, Foreign Minister Baerbock will travel directly from the G7 foreign ministers meeting to Brussels for further talks. Her first appointment in Brussels will be with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, with whom she will discuss current European and foreign policy issues.

On her first visit to Brussels last Thursday, Foreign Minister Baerbock already said that a strong German foreign policy needs a strong Europe, underscoring the fact that Europe plays the pivotal role in Germany’s foreign policy.

At the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, she will again meet the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, whom she saw on her first visit to Brussels and at the G7 meeting in Liverpool over the weekend. High Representative Borrell presides over the EU Foreign Affairs Council – he convenes and chairs the meetings.

Immediately before the Council meeting on Monday, Foreign Minister Baerbock will attend an informal breakfast at which energy policy will be discussed, and to which Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, has been invited. The agenda for the Council meeting itself is long. The first item concerns EU engagement in and with Africa. Germany advocates a partnership between equals that encompasses diverse fields such as health, security and the climate.

The next item is Central Asia, under which the situation in the states of Central Asia will be discussed and debated. The states bordering Afghanistan have faced serious challenges since the Taliban seized power in Kabul. Views are also to be exchanged on the situation in Afghanistan itself, in particular the difficult situation regarding humanitarian supplies. The EU Foreign Ministers will have lunch with the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, at which they will discuss cooperation between the EU and Qatar, especially with regard to Afghanistan.

In addition, the EU Foreign Affairs Council will conduct an exchange of views on the situation in Venezuela and on other current foreign policy issues, such as EU-Turkey relations, having regard to Varosha, the situation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the situation in Ethiopia and at the EU’s external border with Belarus.