The German supply ship Frankfurt am Main and frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg are on their way to Jakarta via the Taiwan Strait, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said in Berlin yesterday.
It is the first such transit by a German warship in 22 years.
Pistorius confirmed the transit during a news conference he held jointly with Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis, saying that the two naval vessels were approaching the Taiwan Strait.
Photo: AFP
“International waters are international waters” and the transit of the Strait complies with international laws, Pistorius said.
The transit is being made because the German vessels see it as the shortest and safest route under the weather conditions, the minister added.
The transit was first reported by the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday last week.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said such transits “provoke and endanger China’s sovereignty and security under the pretext of ‘freedom of navigation.’”
In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense said its armed forces closely monitored activities in the air and water around Taiwan when the transit took place that morning.
A business group in Europe’s largest economy, the Federation of German Industries, welcomed the move.
“German industry is encouraging the federal government to maintain the already eroding rules-based international order as far as possible,” executive board member Wolfgang Niedermark told the Handelsblatt financial daily.
Rules are only valid if they are enforced consistently, and “Germany too must take responsibility for this,” he added.
EU countries have been increasing their presence in the Indo-Pacific region more broadly this year, Institute for National Defense and Security Research assistant analyst Hsu Chih-hsiang (許智翔) said.
“EU nations are unlikely to send vessels or troops if China invaded Taiwan, but they are still able to send warship in peacetime to show their concerns,” he said.
Germany mulled sending a frigate through the Taiwan Strait several years ago, but canceled the plan as then-German chancellor Angela Merkel did not want to irritate China, he added.
The US conducts regular transits through the Strait, and France, the UK and Canada have all sent vessels in recent years.
German Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael Roth earlier this month defended his nation’s actions.
“A transit is not a provocation,” he wrote on X.
“We stand for peace and security in the Taiwan Strait and oppose any unilateral and violent changes to the status quo by China,” he added.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
RSS