Germany’s Baerbock breaks off Pakistan trip after positive test

Islamabad (dpa) – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tested positive at the beginning of her visit to Pakistan, shortly after holding a press conference warning the Afghan Taliban about human rights.

Baerbock has since cancelled all of her appointments, a spokesperson said. She was originally due to travel onwards to Greece and Turkey after Pakistan.

Earlier, Baerbock called on the Afghan Taliban to respect human rights.

“The international community must stand united and together, and tell the Taliban loud and clear, you are heading in the wrong direction,” Baerbock said at a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Islamabad.

“There is no room for normalization and even less for the recognition of the Taliban as legitimate rulers of the country,” she said.

Under the Taliban, she said girls are being deprived of their right to education, women are almost entirely excluded from participation in public life and dissenting voices are being brutally suppressed.

She said that anything beyond humanitarian aid for Afghan people “needs to be conditionalized with regard to the basic rights of the people.”

“Our influence on what happens inside Afghanistan is very limited. It depends on the Taliban making rational choices in their own economic interest, and that is not what they are doing right now,” she said.

Zardari said he was also a victim of terrorism.

“I am a victim of terrorism and terrorist groups,” said the minister, whose mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a terrorist attack in 2007.

“It is our hope that the Afghan authorities would be responsive to the international community’s expectations regarding inclusivity, respect for human rights for all Afghans including women and take effective action against terrorism,” he said.

Earlier, the two discussed the situation in Afghanistan and issues related to economic cooperation and climate change.

Baerbock had originally planned to meet Pakistani prime minister during her two days in the country.