On Tuesday, Germany deployed two military vessels to the Indo-Pacific region in an attempt to bolster its military presence amid increasing tensions between China and Taiwan, Reuters reported.
The tension is putting pressure on freedom of navigation and free passage through trade routes, said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at the German Navy base in Wilhelmshaven. About 40% of Europe’s external trade passes through the South China Sea.
The supply ship “Frankfurt am Main” set sail for the region from Wilhelmshaven, while the frigate “Baden-Württemberg” departed from the Spanish port of Rota. The ships will meet at sea and then sail to Halifax, Canada, and then to the Indo-Pacific region.
The ships will pass through the South China Sea. It is not yet clear whether they will also pass through the Taiwan Strait, as US vessels have done, which will undoubtedly provoke the ire of Germany’s top trading partner, China.
Beijing considers almost the entire South China Sea its own, despite an international tribunal ruling that China has no legal basis for this claim. China also claims democratic Taiwan as its territory, despite strong objections from the latter.
