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.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS