A German frigate will depart for Asia in August and will sail through the South China Sea on its way back, Berlin said on March 2. This will be the first German warship to sail through the South China Sea since 2002. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on May 5, “With the deployment of the frigate ‘Bavaria’ (Frigate Bayern) in the Indo-Pacific region, we are sending a signal.”
Germany‘s Federal Defense Ministry quoted Kahlenbauer via Twitter on Friday as saying, “With the deployment of the frigate ‘Bavaria’ in the Indo-Pacific region, we are sending a signal. Germany is engaged where its values and interests are at stake. In 2020, we decided on new Indo-Pacific guidelines, and now the German government and military abide by their commitments.”
The German Foreign Ministry released a political document entitled “Germany-Europe-Asia: Shaping the 21st Century Together: The German Government Adopts Policy Guidelines for the Indo-Pacific Region” on Sept. 1 of last year. The German side said, “The importance of the Indo-Pacific region has grown significantly over the past few years, both from an economic and a political point of view. The German government is now charting a course for its future policy towards the countries of the region.” Kahlenbauer also said several times later in interviews and at forum events that Germany would send a frigate to the Indo-Pacific region. She revealed that Germany intends to strengthen cooperation with regional powers at the bilateral and multilateral levels to address security challenges.
In response, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department recently responded that “it is in the national interest of the United States to maintain peace and stability, respect international law, and protect legitimate commercial networks from obstruction, as well as free navigation and other legitimate uses of the maritime domain.” The spokesperson said, “We welcome Germany’s support for a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region. The international community has a stake in maintaining an open maritime order.”
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