(This was originally posted in Republic World by Zaini Majeed)
Chinese state media and leading newspapers ran headlines on Tuesday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered the German Navy to divert the Brandenburg-class frigate Bayern warship into the South China Sea. It would be the first time in almost two decades that a German combat vessel has set its course for the Indo-Pacific and that the German military will be deployed in the hotly contested South China Sea in a mighty show of military alliance with India, Japan, Australia, UK and the US against People’s Republic of China’s belligerence and expansionist maritime claims.
France has also waded into the South China Sea with French nuclear attack submarine SNA Emeraude conducting patrols. SNA Emeraude was among two navy warships that sailed into the Pacific. “This extraordinary patrol has just completed a passage in the South China Sea. A striking proof of our French Navy’s capacity to deploy far away and for a long time together with our Australian, American and Japanese strategic partners,” Defence Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter.
But the latest to enter the maritime hotbed this past week was the British aircraft carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth that flew into the South China Sea to assist the US Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 for flight deck operations and conduct military exercises with Indian Navy. British Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier caught the attention in the disputed South China Sea, sending Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army Navy on combat readiness. As China monitored HMS Queen Elizabeth’s movement in the disputed waters, it accused Britain of “still living in its colonial days”.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who hailed the military exercise of the Royal Navy and Singaporean navy, reminded China of the so-called “freedom of navigation” exercise through the South China Sea in his remarks earlier last week. France’s SNA Emeraude entered the ‘Indo-Pacific zone’ from the Gulf of Aden to “show that we are still present there militarily”, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris) Jean-Vincent Brisset said in a televised statement. France military will be in Indo-Pacific fulfilling “an old promise made by Jean-Yves Le Drian when he was still defence minister,” the expert said.
As the US Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets, involved in operations off the British Type 45 destroyer, flew above the South China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) bolstered its military power indicating its sovereignty as military threat escalated despite UK and Germany clarifying that the combat vessels did not enter contested waters for ‘military confrontation’. United States Navy posted photos of fighter jets with a caption: “A free and open Indo-Pacific region that is peaceful and stable is vital to ensuring greater prosperity for the region and the world,”
In its first navy voyage to East Asia since 2002, Berlin is confirmed to conduct a joint military exercise with India as its Brandenburg-class frigate commenced mission on Monday to traverse into the Indo-Pacific region, a flashpoint between China, the US and its allies and partners. China meanwhile threatened should a port call request from a German warship to stop at Shanghai be made, it will not be considered without more information, according to a statement issued by China’s foreign ministry.
