Germany strengthens arms cooperation with Australia

According to the international group Tasnim news agency quoted by “NTV” Germany, Analena In a meeting with his Australian counterpart Penny Wang in Adelaide, South Australia, German Foreign Minister Baerbok announced that he would like to further expand arms cooperation with this country. However, he did not mention any specific project after this meeting.

Baerbok said: Arms cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we want to deepen it further. Regarding the threats of Russia to Europe and China to Australia, he added, both countries are ultimately in a situation where they have to consider similar dangerous situations. He emphasized the desire to cooperate in the arms sector. There, Bremen-based Lürssen is building six patrol boats for the Australian Navy, one of which the German foreign minister took a look at. Another German-Australian beacon project in the arms sector is the production of 123 Boxer tanks by Rheinmetall in Australia: these tanks are to be delivered to the Bundeswehr between 2025 and 2030.

Week Next, the Baden-Württemberg and a supply ship will head to the Pacific Ocean for a months-long training mission. The move also reflects Germany’s growing security policy interest in the Indo-Pacific region, where China is becoming increasingly aggressive toward its neighbors. The People’s Republic of China has disputes over maritime territories in this area with neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The German Foreign Minister did not rule out the possibility that the Baden-Württemberg frigate will also be involved in its upcoming mission in The Pacific Ocean passes through the Taiwan Strait. The German official said during his visit to New Zealand that the route of this warship and supply ship will not be announced in advance. However, he emphasized that the “right of peaceful passage” also applies to the Taiwan Strait.

The same rules apply there as in all similar maritime areas where our ships pass, he said. And there are other ships traveling in it. The training mission of these two ships is carried out on this basis.

The Baden-Württemberg frigate and the supplier of the task force Frankfurt am Main will start a trip around the world from next Tuesday, during which it will pass through the Panama Canal. They will enter the Pacific Ocean and then cross the South China Sea. There was already a similar mission from August 2021 to February 2022. At that time, the Bayern frigate participated in maneuvers with the allies of the time, but avoided passing around Taiwan.

Passing through the Taiwan Strait could be seen as a provocation against China. The People’s Republic of China claims the Democratic Republic of Taiwan as its territory. Beijing’s central government is trying to “reunify” the island and has repeatedly threatened to invade.

Despite China’s threats, the United States, Britain, and France are regularly present in the strait between Taiwan and China. They have a military. Xi Wei Xie, Taiwan’s representative to Germany, recently asked the Baden-Württemberg frigate to follow suit in an interview with the German news agency. He said: “It was disappointing” that this was not the case in Bayern’s previous mission.

Australian Foreign Minister Wang also praised Germany’s commitment in the Indo-Pacific region during the meeting. He said: We welcome Germany’s influence in the world and in our region. Australia is striving for a stronger economic as well as strategic partnership with Germany.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world, but with a relatively small population of around 26 million people. It is a member of the G20 group of leading economic powers, regularly attends the G7 summit and, despite the distance, supports Ukraine in its fight against Russia by supplying arms.

Australia was the first stop on the German Foreign Minister’s week-long visit to the Indo-Pacific region. On Friday evening (local time) he flew to Auckland in New Zealand. On Sunday, Baerbock will sail to Fiji, which is home to more than 300 islands in the South Pacific, before returning to Germany on Tuesday.

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