Two German naval vessels were sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the country’s defence minister said in Berlin, in a rare voyage expected to spark a protest from Beijing.
Asked whether the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and supply ship Frankfurt am Main were headed through the Strait, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said “I can confirm that”. “And the message is a very simple one, which we have always supported... international waters are international waters,” Pistorius told journalists.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz later brushed off a question on the issue at a press conference, remarking that “there is not much to say... it’s an international waterway”.
US and other military ships have often sailed through the sensitive waterway but it was the first time in over two decades that the German navy has done so, German media reports said. — AFP
