Luxury goods were flowing when Denmark’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod and five employees from the Ministry of Foreign affairs went on a long trip to Asia in November last year.
In a recent article, media BT reveals that the appendix from the trip shows that the Minister and the delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent a total of DKK 1.2 million on planes, large dinners, and luxurious hotel rooms on their trip around Asia. A piano tuner and a gardener were also hired and paid for.
The Foreign Minister’s own trip amounted to a total cost of DKK 918,504. The majority of that amount was spent on a privately chartered round trip flight from Tokyo in Japan to Hangzhou in China. BT has uncovered that the price of the flight alone was DKK 811,350.
But the private plane was not the only thing out of the ordinary during the Minister’s Asia trip. Jeppe Kofod and his colleagues spent a total of DKK 421,980 on scheduled flights, accommodation, and dinners during the trip.
BT’s access to the appendix shows that the Danish delegation spent the night at the historic and luxurious Hotel Majapahit in Jakarta, Indonesia, where they booked 3 ‘Legendary Suites’ and 17′ Heritage Rooms’. In addition to the Minister and colleagues, several profiles from the Danish business community also spent the night at the beautiful hotel. Among others, directors from Maersk and Nokia.
On the program for the trip was also a large-scale banquet for business leaders with hired waiters and food from the five-star hotel Mandarin Oriental for a total price of DKK 19,460.
From Indonesia, the trip continued to Tokyo, Japan.
Here, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a dinner at the Embassy of Denmark in Tokyo. Receipts from the dinner show that servants, an extra chef, several gardeners, and a piano tuner were hired for the event.
From Tokyo, Jeppe Kofod flew by private plane to China, BT is still waiting for access to the documents from that part of the trip.
The chartered private plane to China joins a series of trips that the Foreign Minister has had in 2021, where he opted out of commercial scheduled flights in favor of expensive private planes.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains to BT that the flight to China had special requirements.
“The Chinese authorities demanded that the delegation was in a special ‘covid bubble’, and had set strict requirements for transportation in and out of China. It was therefore only possible to carry out the meeting if an aircraft could be chartered by a private provider,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states in a written response.
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