Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot traveled to Damascus on 2025-01-03, becoming the first European Union foreign ministers to visit Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
According to Der Spiegel, the two diplomats were due to meet Syria’s new rulers and representatives of civil society during the visit. The trip, organized in coordination with the EU’s foreign policy chief, is being framed in Berlin as an attempt to open a new phase in relations while making clear that any reset will depend on political inclusion and restraint from the new authorities.
Baerbock said before departure that the end of Assad rule had opened a new chapter, but one that had not yet been written. She argued that a political restart between Europe and Syria, and between Germany and Syria, was possible, but only if Syria’s new order gave all communities a place in the political process and protected rights across religious and ethnic lines.
The German minister also warned against any move toward extremism or the exclusion of women and minority communities from public life. She said Europe would judge the new authorities by their actions, not their rhetoric. Der Spiegel reported that she stressed the need for a system in which all Syrians had a role and where neither radicalization of education and justice systems nor prolonged delays to elections would derail the transition.
The visit signals a cautious diplomatic opening after years of estrangement during Syria’s civil war. It also shows how quickly some European capitals are testing whether the post-Assad landscape can support limited engagement without endorsing the new rulers outright.
Der Spiegel said the delegation was to include Tobias Lindner, Germany’s special coordinator for Syria, and that Baerbock would meet civil society figures in addition to the new power holders. Germany was not bringing a fresh financial package to Damascus, though it already had humanitarian and stabilization channels in place. The report said Berlin had previously backed non-governmental and U.N.-linked projects and that a separate aid package announced by the development ministry would be delivered through aid organizations rather than the new Syrian authorities.
The trip may prove modest in practical terms, but symbolically it matters. After years in which Syria was politically isolated, the first EU ministerial visit since Assad’s fall marks a shift from watching events from afar to trying to shape the next phase from within.
