Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach, Germany’s Naval Chief, signaled the recent deployment of a German warship into the South China Sea as a “teaser” towards the country’s plan to ramp up its military presence in the disputed area. The German Naval Chief said that the plan was to dispatch more ships and aircrafts into Asia from 2023.
The Bayern, a Brandenburg-class frigate German frigate undertook the journey into the contested waters of South China Sea last week as it sailed in August with a crew of 200 towards Asia. Speaking from onboard the warship, Schonbach declared Germany’s interests in maintaining an international rules-based order in the region. A first of its kind move in nearly 20 years, the Naval Chief pointed that the idea was not to provoke but Berlin felt the need to send a “signal” to Beijing.
“This time, we start with small steps … probably we’ll pass [the Taiwan Strait] the next time on a bilateral basis,” Schonbach said when asked why the vessel did not sail through the strait. He said the navy was focused on Berlin’s “value partners,” and it was “not starting with a hammer.”
While, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian spoke of great importance to the strategic partnership and cooperation between the two countries, Germany claimed that the Bayern frigate was denied entry into the Chinese harbors of the region.
At the other end, the trip which was termed as “standing up” for “values and interests” by Germany, was downplayed by China’s state-run Global Times paper last week as a call for “attention,” dismissing the same as “free publicity”.
