A German patrol ship will be the first German warship to cross the South China Sea since 2002. The picture shows a German Baden-Württemberg-class patrol ship.
German officials confirmed on Tuesday (2) local Time that a German patrol ship will travel to Asia this summer and will cross the South China Sea. This is the first time since 2002 that Germany has sent a warship to cruise the waters of the South China Sea.
According to New Tang Dynasty TV, a number of senior government officials from the German Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry revealed that a German patrol ship (frigate) will depart for the Asia-Pacific region in August this year to visit Japan, South Korea, Australia and other countries, and will travel through the South China Sea on its return trip, but said the warship will not sail into the “12 nautical mile line” drawn by the relevant islands and reefs.
German government and ruling party sources said the frigate, homeported in northern Germany, will stay in the Indo-Pacific region for a while, calling on Japan, Australia, South Korea and other countries. The frigate is expected to be resupplied during her stay and participate in joint exercises in several French possessions in the region. The frigate is also scheduled to sail into the South China Sea.
The Nikkei Asian Review (Nikkei Asia) analysis pointed out that Germany has been cautious about deploying troops to regions outside Europe. Traditionally, Asia has not been a priority region for Germany, but because of the increased security interests in East Asia, Berlin will strive to show its willingness to maintain world order in the future. Although the German Federal Ministry of Defense parliamentary state secretary Silberhorn (Thomas Silberhorn) previously stressed that the plan “not against anyone,” but Berlin Zhengfu this move is clearly aimed at China’s military actions in the South China Sea.
In January, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Germany would send a frigate to patrol Indo-Pacific waters starting in 2021, the report said.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Karrenbauer said, “I am convinced that territorial disputes, violations of international law, and China’s ambitions for global domination can only be resolved multilaterally.”
In fact, back in 2019, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer mentioned in a lecture at the Federal Defense University in Munich (Universität der Bundeswehr München) that Germany’s allies in the Indo-Pacific region, such as Japan, Australia and India, are increasingly threatened from the Chinese Communist Party, and these countries now need some external allies to support them, and Germany, as their ally, will make a show of sending a frigate for deployment to the Asia-Pacific region, including the South China Sea.
In the fall of 2020, the German government, which has always been considered the number one pro-China faction among Western European powers, adopted a new Indo-Pacific Policy Guidelines in a cabinet meeting, proposing to take a tough stance in the face of the Chinese Communist Party, a rare occurrence.
The Beijing government reportedly claims almost all the waters of the energy-rich South China Sea and has deployed military facilities on artificially constructed islands and reefs. The U.S. has criticized Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea as an attempt to bully its regional neighbors who may be exploiting its rich oil and gas resources.
Last year and this year, U.S. and Canadian warships routinely conducted “freedom of navigation” missions in accordance with the rules of freedom of navigation in international public waters. Next, Britain’s largest ever warship, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, will also cruise the Indo-Pacific region, and the United States, Japan, the Netherlands and Australia have all announced that they will participate in HMS Queen Elizabeth’s cruise program.
Zachary Hosford, acting director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), a think tank, said these countries are signaling to the world that they are willing to stand with the United States and recognize the need to maintain the international order and Beijing’s challenge to that order, which includes building military bases on artificial islands, among other things.
Experts say these moves could strengthen ties and deepen defense cooperation with allies such as the United States and Japan, and build trust with regional trading partners while keeping the Chinese Communist Party in check and addressing its growing threats and expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
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