A German frigate and combat supply ship set sail from Europe to Asia this week in a show of support for allies facing China’s “aggressive behavior,” with the defense minister not ruling out the prospect of the vessels passing through the Taiwan Strait.
In the three years since the German Navy last headed for the Indo-Pacific region, the geopolitical picture has worsened significantly. The threat of war is ringing louder in the region, while Ukraine and Gaza are facing daily bombardments.
Against this tense global backdrop, the ships will participate in exercises together with fleets from Canada, the U.S., Japan, India and France. The highlight will be the U.S. Navy-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maneuver, the world’s largest maritime exercise that takes place every two years off Hawaii. At RIMPAC, the ships will be meeting up with the German Air Force.
The French and Spanish air forces will join the exercises, creating a fleet of dozens of European fighter jets. Italy looks set to send its aircraft carrier Cavour and its formation, including F-35 multirole combat aircraft, to participate in RIMPAC. Separately, France has said it plans to send the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Indo-Pacific this year.
German Vice Adm. Jan Christian Kaack recently highlighted China’s “aggressive behavior” and related the worries of partners in the region. Observers say it makes strategic sense for European countries to take a more active role in global security, given the events of recent years. The German Navy’s 2021 foray to the Indo-Pacific was the first after an absence of two decades.
“If the Eurasian supercontinent is the decisive geographic feature on the planet, then it behooves European governments to help manage events in the rim lands as Russia, the Houthis, Iran, China and North Korea make trouble there,” said James Holmes, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
The German frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and supply ship Frankfurt am Main are heading across the North Atlantic and the Panama Canal to Hawaii and Japan, then the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and Red Sea before returning home in an eight-month journey.
At Wilhelmshaven port on Tuesday, loved ones bid farewell to around 200 sailors as a squadron of Eurofighter and Tornado jets flanking a military transport plane staged a flyby. The aircraft nearly drowned out German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ answer to whether the ships will pass through the Taiwan Strait.
Collin Koh Swee Lean, senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, sees the European moves as partly reflecting fiercer competition in the global arms market.
“South Korea is a good example of how it managed to break into the European market that otherwise tends to be an almost exclusive playground for Western arms vendors,” Koh said, “[Europeans] showcasing top-end naval capabilities in the conduct of maritime diplomacy, besides the traditional motive of projecting deterrence and cooperation, for the purpose of promoting sales takes on a renewed importance.”
