(Dan Tri) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, currently in her fourth term, is facing pressure for a larger German military role in Europe as well as abroad.
German Prime Minister Angela Merkel (Photo: Reuters)
According to the South China Morning Post, when German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited Beijing last October, she was very careful to avoid directly mentioning the East Sea.
The South China Sea is where Western governments worry about China’s rapid militarization, but it did not appear in Ms. Leyen’s speech at China’s National Defense University.
“Sea routes,” Ms. Leyen said, without specifying, “need to be open and not become the center of power struggles.”
A few months after Ms. Leyen’s speech, German government officials clashed over a plan to send ships to participate in US-led freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.
“Officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are turning away,” said a Berlin source.
Although the German government last week denied information about a plan to send German naval ships to the Taiwan Strait, the possibility of a German presence in the South China Sea is a possibility, many sources said.
“The East Sea is an important international sea, and Germany is a trading power,” said Walter Ladwig from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London (UK).
The South China Sea plays an important role for German exporters.
Expert: Germany needs to expand the role of the military
With EU countries, which Beijing views as strategic partners, considering forming a defense alliance, analysts say Chancellor Angela Merkel should expand the role of the German military.
“Coordination of this kind requires closer cooperation between member states, especially with France,” said Bernt Berger, an expert at the German Council on Foreign Affairs.
For Germany, the legacy of the two world wars could make it more involved in activities in the South China Sea with the United States in the way that France, Britain, Japan, India, Australia and the Philippines have done.
“Germany wants a stronger army to fulfill its international obligations, but the German people oppose that,” Werner Kraetschell, a friend of the Merkel family, told German media in 2017.
About two-thirds of German voters opposed the country’s participation in the civil war in Syria.
Still, allies hope for Germany to play a larger military role at a time when Europe, like the United States, is concerned about China challenging the world order.
`From the perspective of the US and France, if Germany also wants freedom of navigation, the message needs to have more weight,` said Mathieu Duchatel, Asia director of the Institut Montaigne research institute in Paris.
Whether Germany will send ships to the East Sea or not is another matter.
German politicians also need to mention areas where European and Chinese interests overlap, such as climate change, trade reform, crisis management and management.
Experts say that because Prime Minister Merkel often speaks frankly about bilateral relations, Berlin is unlikely to face serious diplomatic consequences if it has a naval presence in the East Sea.
“Germany is a European country that is very straightforward in its diplomatic relations with China, without causing political harm.
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