German warships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait this week demonstrated Europe’s interest in keeping East Asia peaceful, a Taiwanese academic said on Friday.
Military ships from the US and other countries have often sailed through the sensitive waterway, but Friday’s voyage by the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the supply vessel Frankfurt am Main was the first time the German Navy had done so in more than two decades.
German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius on Friday said the vessels were headed from South Korea to the Philippines, adding that their course was the shortest and safest route given the weather conditions.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan ADIZ Facebook page
“It’s an international waterway,” he said.
The transit shows that European nations have connected their own security with the Indo-Pacific region, especially Taiwan, which was echoed in President William Lai’s (賴清德) remarks that “Taiwan is the world’s Taiwan,” National Taiwan University political science professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民) said on Friday.
The US is the major power that usually maintains peace in Europe and East Asia, but following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the US support for the eastern European country, Washington might struggle to maintain the same role in East Asia, Chen said.
As such, European countries have begun to take on a larger role in the Indo-Pacific region’s security to maintain peace and assist the US in stabilizing the region, which includes the Taiwan Strait, he said.
They have moved away from their previous belief that the region is too distant and disconnected from Europe, Chen said.
For example, after the NATO Summit in July, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called for members to show concern for the Taiwan Strait, take seriously the threat that China poses to the international order as well as NATO in particular through its military buildup, he said.
Friday’s transit was the first in the Strait by a German naval vessel since 2002, but in the past two years other European navies have sailed through the waterway, such as a Dutch warship in June on its way to carry out UN sanctions against North Korea, the professor said.
In each of the past two years, the Italian Navy has sent a frigate on a training and patrol to the region as a way to signal support for the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, although the ships did not enter the Strait either time, he added.
In the past few weeks, the US and Canada have sent warships through the Strait, underscoring the importance of freedom of navigation through the sea lane, Chen said.
For comparison, in 2021, when a German ship carried out its mission in the Indo-Pacific region, it chose to pass to the east of Taiwan on its way back to Europe, he said.
This most recent transit, less than one month after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co held a groundbreaking ceremony in Dresden, Germany, which was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, shows that Germany has greater interest in ensuring peace and stability in the Strait, Chen said.
Additional reporting by agencies
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