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.
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