German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore that Germany will deploy two warships to the Indo- Pacific next year.
According to Mr. Pistorius, this sea route, through which about 40% of foreign trade passes, must be respected. And “to achieve this goal, the German federal government sent a frigate to the Indo -Pacific in 2021, and again in 2024, we will deploy ships at sea,” he said.
Mr. Boris Pistorius.
The ships are expected to include a frigate and a supply ship – but he stressed that Germany’s deployment at sea is not aimed at countering the actions of any particular party in the region. “On the contrary,” he continued, “doing this contributes to our commitment to the rules-based international order that we have all signed up to and that we can all benefit from.”
Berlin and Beijing maintain important trade links, but the deployment of warships to the Indo-Pacific, including the South China Sea, by 2024 could lead to headaches as Germany seeks to balance its economic and security interests.
In 2021, a German warship was deployed to the region for the first time in nearly two decades. Other Western countries have also increased their military presence in the region.
At the same Singapore conference, Pistorius said he had “made it clear” to Beijing that he wanted China to stop recruiting former German military pilots to help train its own forces. The news came after a report by the news magazine Spiegel said China had been receiving such training for years and that security officials in Berlin were concerned that the military expertise of German and NATO forces was being tainted.
Phuong Anh (Source: RT)
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