Fact Check: Video showing German foreign minister not receiving official welcome is not from India
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in India for a 2-day visit. This is his third visit since he became chancellor in 2021
German Foreign Minister
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in India for a 2-day visit. This is his third visit since he became chancellor in 2021. As part of his team, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also visited India. During this visit, she met with the German learners at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan where she made remarks that young educated Indians are striving to enter the labor market, while in Germany, there is a "great need" of skilled workers, and it can be turned into a 'win-win-win' situation for both the countries and youths, if worked together. India’s External Affairs minister Jaishankar also held comprehensive talks with German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and discussed various regional and global matters.
A video is in circulation on social media showing German foreign minister Annakena Baerbock getting down from an airplane and getting confused on finding no official welcome to her on the tarmac. Then she walks off towards the vehicles. This video is being shared with the claim that when she arrived in India, there was no one to welcome her formally on the tarmac. The claim goes as “German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appeared surprised when she arrived in India to find no formal welcome on the tarmac.”
The same video is also in circulation on social media claiming that this incident happened in China.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The video is from when Baerbock arrived in Malaysia, in January 2024.
When we extracted the keyframes from the video and searched using Google reverse image search, we found a post on X in German language explaining that the video shows Baerbock’s arrival in Malaysia. The government aircraft had to unexpectedly land in another part of the airport, and so the welcoming delegation was not visible. They were standing a few meters further away.
We also found a longer video published on January 19, 2024, by GIC Southeast Asia, a public diplomacy initiative of Germany’s federal foreign office, about her visit to the Southeast part of Asia. We found some of the visuals in this video matched the visuals from the viral video shared on social media accounts.
An article published by dw.com on January 16, 2024, also shares Baerbock’s image while getting off the plane in Malaysia.
According to a fact check published by Reuters, an official from the German foreign ministry said in the email that the viral video was not taken in India or China. The video was taken at the arrival of the foreign minister in Malaysia. The official clearly stated that “Due to a miscommunication at the airport, the airplane had parked at a different parking position than previously arranged, while the receiving committee had been at the previously agreed place," the foreign ministry official said. "Thus, the minister had to walk a few steps to meet the receiving committee.”
The video was also debunked by India Today. Therefore, the video with the claim that German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock did not receive any formal welcome after landing in India is False. The video is not from India.