Two German Navy warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait. This at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing. While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the strait in 22 years.
China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180 km wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Taiwan and the United States say the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.
“The decision has not been taken yet,” the commander of the naval task group, Rear Admiral Axel Schulz, told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding the weather would play a role.
“We are showing our flag here to demonstrate that we stand by our partners and friends, our commitment to the rules-based order, the peaceful solution of territorial conflicts and free and secure shipping lanes.”
Before their possible passage through the strait next month, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main plan to call in Tokyo on Tuesday. They will also make stops in South Korea and the Philippines.
They will take part in exercises in the region with France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United States.
Over the last four years, Beijing’s military has increased its activities in the strait.
Expanding Military Presence
Sailings through the waterway by foreign warships, especially American, are regularly condemned
, opens new tab by Beijing, which says such missions “undermine peace and stability” in the region.
Germany, for whom both China and Taiwan, with its huge chip industry, are major trade partners, has joined other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region as their alarm has grown over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.
In 2021, a German warship sailed through the South China Sea, for the first time in almost 20 years.
Last month, the Luftwaffe deployed fighter jets to Japan for the first joint drills there.
Schulz said he was not planning for any specific security measures should the warships under his command cross the Taiwan Strait, terming the voyage a “normal passage” similar to sailing through the English Channel or the North Sea.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
