Tensions escalate between Beijing and Taiwan, this western country adds 'gasoline to the fire' with the frightening warning

Germany will send two warships to the Indo-Pacific in 2024, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday, amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan and over the disputed South China Sea.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's most important security conference, Pistorius said countries must stand up for the rules-based international order and the protection of key sea lanes.

"To this end, the German Federal Government sent a frigate to the Indo-Pacific in 2021, and again, in 2024, will deploy naval assets - this time a frigate and a supply ship - to the region," he said, according to a script of his speech distributed by the defense ministry in Berlin.
He added that the deployments were not directed against any nation, a remark apparently directed at China.

"On the contrary: they are committed to protecting the rules-based international order to which we have all signed up and which we all stand to benefit from, whether in the Mediterranean, the Bay of Bengal or the South China Sea." he added.By
showing a greater military presence in the region, Germany is walking a tightrope between its security and economic interests as China is Berlin's most important trading partner.

In 2021, a German warship sailed into the South China Sea for the first time in almost 20 years, a move that saw Berlin join other Western countries in expanding its military presence in the region amid growing alarm over territorial ambitions. of China.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own, despite an international court ruling that Beijing has no legal basis for the claims, and has built military posts on artificial islands in waters that contain gas fields and rich fisheries.

About 40% of Europe's foreign trade flows through the South China Sea.