The German Luftwaffe (Air Force) expanded its operations into the Indo-Pacific region, moving closer to China. And do not think that Germany in this case acts only as a true ally of the United States.
Imperial ambitions have awakened in this country again and they are now directed to this region, believes Johannes SternChief Editor Editor-in-chief and publisher of the German website World Socialist Web
In recent days, six Eurofighters from the 74th Tactical Airlift Wing at Neuburg an der Donau, four A400Ms from the 62nd Air Transport Wing at Wunstorf and three A330 multi-role transport tankers from the Eindhoven-based Multi-role Transport Tanker Unit were deployed “for the first time from Germany to the Indo-Pacific,” according to the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces).
The German squadron arrived in Australia on August 23 and will take part in large-scale military exercises in the region in the next few days. They are clearly offensive in nature and are part of the military preparations of the US and its allies in the region against China.
The official website of the Bundeswehr says: “During the exercise Pitch Black, Eurofighter fighters will practice air strikes and defense with international partners as part of large formations.” During the exercise, Eurofighter fighters will “be used against targets in the air and on the surface.” The multinational naval exercise Kakadu, he said, is aimed at protecting “ships from the air.” In total, “about 250 pilots and women” were involved in the maneuvers, he said.
According to the Australian Armed Forces, this is the largest maneuver of its kind. Pitch Black alone will involve “up to 2,500 soldiers and up to 100 aircraft from around the world.” One report highlights that “Germany, Japan and the Republic of Korea are participating fully for the first time.” The Kakadu exercise will also be the “largest to date” with 19 ships, 34 aircraft and more than 3,000 troops from 25 countries, the report said.
The exercise will be followed by “short visits” by a Luftwaffe squadron to “East Asian partners with common values” – Japan, South Korea and Singapore – all of which play a key role in the US-led anti-China alliance in the region, according to a German Defense Ministry statement. And, apparently, the next transfers are already planned. “The reinforced presence of the Bundeswehr will continue in the coming years,” the ministry writes.
The demonstration of the Bundeswehr in the Indo-Pacific highlights how aggressive German militarism is behaving after two lost world wars and the terrible crimes for which it was responsible in the 20th century. The current operation was “the largest and most complex deployment ever undertaken by the Luftwaffe,” boasted the most senior officer, Luftwaffe Inspector Ingo Gerhartz, before takeoff.
Luftwaffe Inspector Ingo Gebhartz (Amit Agronov / IDF Press Service)
The Luftwaffe chief, who recently threatened to use nuclear weapons against Russia, emphasized the global claims of German militarism. “The Luftwaffe can not only protect the eastern flank of NATO in the Baltic, but also cooperate with friendly countries in the Indo-Pacific region. There is no “either-or” for us! We are sending a clear signal that the Luftwaffe can be deployed quickly and around the world, even with multiple missions to run in parallel.”
This is unambiguous. Germany is taking a leading role in the course of the war, not only against Russia, but now also against China. Taking Luftwaffe provocative posing in the Indo-Pacific to the extreme, Gerhartz announced that he himself plans to fly a Eurofighter from Australia to Japan. Its route passes directly past the South China Sea and Taiwan.
German intervention will further escalate the situation in the region. Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier this month, the Indo-Pacific has become like a powder keg, and a direct military confrontation between the US and China is an imminent threat.
The Chinese military has indefinitely extended exercises around Taiwan that began immediately after Pelosi’s departure. The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier battle group led by the USS Ronald Reagan near the island and plans to send warships through the Taiwan Strait. Another US delegation arrived in Taipei on Sunday. The “one China” policy, which has been the backbone of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and Washington since 1979, has effectively ended.
Washington’s offensive is aimed at subjugating the former semi-colony of China and thereby ensuring the dominance of US imperialism. Although this project would mean a devastating third world war, German imperialism does not want to stand aside when it comes to controlling and partitioning this resource-rich and geostrategically key region. Despite close economic ties with China, the German ruling class is turning to war.
Leading German government and opposition figures have already supported Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan and called for a more aggressive approach to China. The tone was set by Green Party Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. In her foreign policy keynote speech at the New School in New York, she called Beijing a “competitor and systemic rival.” She said that “Germany’s interests cannot be that China creates excessive economic dependence in its region.”
The media is also beating the war drum. “Germany must prepare for conflict with China” and “free itself from dependence on the People’s Republic – even at the cost of prosperity,” demands Germany’s most read weekly news weekly, Der Spiegel. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warns: “Open conflict with Russia currently dwarfs systemic rivalry with China. However, confrontation with Beijing is more difficult in the long run.”
This is not about defending “values” and “democracy” against Russian and Chinese “aggressors”, as official propaganda would have us believe, but about tangible imperialist interests. It is the NATO powers – primarily the United States and Germany – that over the past 30 years have unleashed bloody wars for raw materials, markets and spheres of influence in the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Now the imperialist redistribution of the world is directly aimed at the subjugation of Moscow and Beijing.
Like NATO’s proxy war against Russia, Germany’s military offensive in the Indo-Pacific was systematically planned. At the last NATO summit in late June, a new NATO strategy was adopted that explicitly aims the military alliance at a military confrontation with the nuclear powers Russia and China. Back in September 2020, the German Foreign Ministry published the so-called Indo-Pacific Guidelines, in which it declared the Indo-Pacific region “key to shaping the international order in the 21st century.”
Further, the strategic document directly formulates the claim of German imperialism to leadership in the region: “The Himalayas and the Strait of Malacca may seem far away. But our prosperity and geopolitical influence in the coming decades will depend precisely on how we cooperate with the states of the Indo-Pacific region.” As a globally active trading nation, Germany should not be content with being a spectator, including militarily.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors
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