Minister on Indo-Pacific trip
Baerbock wants to deepen arms cooperation with Australia
May 3, 2024, 7:12 p.m
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A German company manufactures patrol boats for the Australian Navy. The Bundeswehr is to receive wheeled armored vehicles from the Rheinmetall factory in Australia. Now Foreign Minister Baerbock explains in Adelaide that she would like to see even more intensive arms cooperation with Down Under.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock would like to further expand arms cooperation with Australia. However, she did not name any specific projects after a meeting with her counterpart Penny Wong in Adelaide, South Australia.
“The arms cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we want to deepen it further,” said Baerbock. Both countries are ultimately in a situation “where we have to assume similar threats,” she added, referring to the threats from Russia to Europe and China to Australia.
German warship sets off for the Pacific next week
Baerbock underlined the willingness to cooperate in the armaments sector with a visit to the Osborne shipyard. There, the Bremen-based company Lürssen is building six patrol boats for the Australian Navy, one of which the minister took a look at. Another German-Australian lighthouse project in the armaments sector is the production of 123 Boxer wheeled tanks by Rheinmetall in Australia: These are to be delivered to the Bundeswehr between 2025 and 2030.
Next week, the frigate “Baden-Württemberg” and a supply ship will set off on a training mission lasting several months towards the Pacific. This is also an expression of Germany’s increasing security policy interest in the Indo-Pacific region, in which China is becoming increasingly aggressive towards its neighbors. The authoritarian communist People’s Republic is fighting over maritime territories with neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. She also repeatedly threatens the democratic Republic of Taiwan with an invasion.
Australian Foreign Minister Wong praised Germany’s commitment in the Indo-Pacific region. “We welcome the way Germany exerts its influence in the world and in our region,” she said. Australia is striving for a stronger economic but also strategic partnership with Germany.
Return of cultural assets to Aboriginal tribes
After their political talks, Baerbock and Wong took part in a ceremony to return cultural objects to the Kaurna Aboriginal tribe. It involves a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club, all of which were sent to Germany in the 19th century by two German missionaries and were last seen in Leipzig’s Gassi Museum of Ethnology.
“Each of these objects holds countless stories. Stories about how the Kaurna people lived over 150 years ago,” said Baerbock at the handover ceremony in Adelaide, South Australia. She wanted to pay respect to the Kaurna’s spiritual relationship with their land.
Baerbock actually wanted to hand over the cultural assets personally last August. Due to breakdowns on her government plane, she had to cancel her trip on the way there. The Grassi Museum then independently brought the items to Australia. With the ceremony in Adelaide, the handover is now considered officially sealed.
The proportion of the indigenous population is only four percent
The proportion of Australia’s indigenous population is now around four percent. There are 40,000 Australians among the Kaurna people. Aboriginal history goes back 60,000 years. Before British colonization from the end of the 18th century, there were around 700 tribes. Of its former 300 languages, only 20 are still spoken today.
Australia is the sixth largest country in the world, but with around 26 million inhabitants it is relatively sparsely populated. It is a member of the G20 group of leading economic powers, regularly takes part in the G7 summit of economically strong democracies and, despite the distance, supports Ukraine in its defensive battle against Russia with arms deliveries.
Australia was the first stop on the minister’s week-long Indo-Pacific trip. On Friday evening (local time) she flew on to Auckland in New Zealand. On Sunday, Baerbock will head to Fiji with its more than 300 islands in the South Pacific before returning to Germany on Tuesday.