Britain, Germany give update on future Indo-Pacific naval deployments

Correction: A previous version misidentified Germany’s defense minister. The minister’s name is Boris Pistorius.

SINGAPORE — The defense ministers of Germany and the United Kingdom have pledged to keep up their respective military presence in the Indo-Pacific region , while also outlining their plans for military deployments, at a regional security summit in Singapore.

Britain’s Ben Wallace and Germany’s Boris Pistorius were speaking at their respective plenaries during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, an event organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies that ran June 2-4.

Wallace said that the Royal Navy will deploy another aircraft carrier and an accompanying strike group to the region in 2025 , following a deployment of the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to the region in 2021.

He also highlighted the permanent deployment of the offshore patrol vessels HMS Tamar and HMS Spey to the Indo-Pacific. Both vessels arrived in the region in 2021 and have since undertaken 16 port visits and 20 regional exercises.

The ships have also engaged in real-world missions such as sanctions monitoring in the East China Sea and disaster relief following a tsunami in Tonga.

Wallace also cited China’s “epoch-defining” rise as the biggest challenge for the region, warning that “none of our most fundamental global issues can be solved without engagement with China .”

“Be they climate change, energy and food security, economic stagnation, tech regulation, nuclear proliferation,” he said, “we must also speak plainly and acknowledge that there are also challenges from that ‘rise’ — illegal fishing, tensions in territorial waters, sovereignty disputes and debt diplomacy.”

For his part, Pistorius confirmed in his speech that Germany will send a frigate and a supply ship to the Indo-Pacific region in 2024. A German frigate made a similar deployment in 2021, while its Eurofighter multirole combat aircraft undertook a deployment to the region last year , taking part in a large-scale air combat exercise in Australia and visiting several other local countries.

He also urged respect of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and backed the principle of freedom of navigation, which “can and should be done via non-military means” to a large extent. As an example, he highlighted Germany’s participation in the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, an international agreement dubbed ReCAAP.

“Germany also stands ready to support all efforts to promote bilateral or multilateral confidence-building measures such as pre-notification of exercises, mutual invitation to participate in exercises, mutual site visits, inspections of military installations or arms control agreements,” Pistorius said, welcoming the Biden administration’s offer to enter into negotiations with Russia and China on nuclear arms control without preconditions.

Mike Yeo is the Asia correspondent for Defense News.

更正：此前版本误报了德国国防部长的名字。该部长名为鲍里斯·皮斯托瑞斯。

新加坡——在新加坡举行的区域安全峰会上，德国和英国国防部长承诺将继续在印太地区保持各自的军事存在，并概述了各自的军事部署计划。

英国的本·华莱士和德国的鲍里斯·皮斯托瑞斯在新加坡举行的香格里拉对话期间分别在各自的全体会议上发表了讲话。该对话由国际战略研究所组织，于6月2日至4日举行。

华莱士表示，继2021年向该地区部署“伊丽莎白女王”号航空母舰之后，英国皇家海军将于2025年向该地区部署另一艘航空母舰和一支伴随的打击群。

他还重点介绍了“塔玛尔”号和“斯佩”号近海巡逻舰在印太地区的永久部署。这两艘舰艇于2021年抵达该地区，此后已进行了16次港口访问和20次区域性演习。

这些舰艇还参与了现实世界的任务，例如在东海进行制裁监测，以及在汤加发生海啸后进行救灾。

华莱士还指出，中国的崛起是该地区面临的最大挑战，堪称“划时代的”崛起，并警告说，“如果不与中国接触，我们任何最根本的全球问题都无法解决。”

他说：“无论是气候变化、能源和粮食安全、经济停滞、技术监管还是核扩散，我们也必须坦诚地承认，这种‘崛起’也带来了挑战——非法捕鱼、领海紧张局势、主权争端和债务外交。”

皮斯托瑞斯在讲话中确认，德国将于2024年向印太地区派遣一艘护卫舰和一艘补给舰。德国一艘护卫舰在2021年进行了类似的部署，而其欧洲战斗机多用途战斗机去年也部署到了该地区，参加了在澳大利亚举行的大规模空战演习，并访问了其他几个周边国家。

他还敦促各方尊重《联合国海洋法公约》，并支持航行自由原则，认为航行自由“可以而且应该在很大程度上通过非军事手段实现”。他举例说明了德国参与了《亚洲打击海盗和武装抢劫船舶区域合作协定》（简称ReCAAP），这是一项国际协定。

皮斯托里乌斯表示：“德国也随时准备支持一切旨在促进双边或多边建立信任措施的努力，例如演习预先通知、相互邀请参加演习、相互实地访问、检查军事设施或达成军控协议。”他欢迎拜登政府提出在不设前提条件的情况下与俄罗斯和中国就核军控问题展开谈判。

Mike Yeo 是《防务新闻》的亚洲通讯员。