Germany’s air force chief has said his country is determined to visibly demonstrate its increased focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
Even as Nato countries seek to deter further Russian aggression in Europe, Lt Gen Ingo Gerhartz said countries that stood for freedom and democracy “really have to cooperate in Europe the same as in Asia”.
Speaking to the Guardian during a visit to Australia this week, Gerhartz said he did not believe there was a risk that Russia’s war against Ukraine would distract from German military deployments to the Indo-Pacific.
As proof, he cited the German air force’s participation in the Pitch Black exercise in the Northern Territory last August and September.
That occurred at a time when Nato was intensely focused on its “eastern flank” – the area stretching from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south – amid increasing concern about the war in Ukraine.
“I mean, I deployed fighter jets with my air force to the eastern flank, we deployed Patriot … air defence weapons systems, fire batteries to the eastern flank,” Gerhartz recalled.
“We were really really busy in terms of deploying more forward to Nato boundaries, so to speak, to signal to Russia: Nato territory is a red line, you are not allowed to cross.
“But at the same time in parallel we deployed to the Indo-Pacific. That was a statement by itself in terms of our readiness level, that we are capable of doing both in parallel.”
Gerhartz said Germany had also brought an A400M transport aircraft to the Avalon airshow in Victoria this week to send “a strong signal that this region is important for us, Australia is important for us as a like-minded partner”.
He stopped short of saying explicitly that Germany was signalling its concerns about China’s possible military intentions, including over the future status of democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing has not ruled out taking by force.
Gerhartz said Germany was signalling “in favour of our partners” and not “against anybody”.
But he added: “Especially now looking to the war in Ukraine, you cannot divide Europe from Asia, and you cannot divide the scenario we have looking to Russia with the scenario here in the Indo-Pacific.”
Gerhartz also suggested that Europe’s commitment to Australia and other partners in the region needed to be more than rhetorical.
“I mean it’s good if politicians talk about it, but you have to fill it with life. You have to show it, prove that you really mean it. We want to make it really visible.”
He said that was why Germany’s air force was planning to attend the Pitch Black exercise in Australia next year. If the participation was a one-off, critics could claim “now they are busy in Europe and now they don’t come any more”.
“In aerodynamics, we would say now the cooperation is in a stall.”
Germany’s air force has put a proposal to its counterparts in France and Spain that they come to next year’s Pitch Black exercise as “a common contingent”.
Gerhartz said it would be “a strong signal if those three nations are holding hands deploying to the Indo-Pacific”.
He said Germany would start flying F-35 fighter jets in 2026, and Australia already had experience operating them, so the two countries could explore opportunities to cooperate on training and weapons.
The war in Ukraine has triggered a rapid reassessment of defence and security policies across Europe, including an increase in German defence spending, along with applications by Finland and Sweden to join the Nato alliance.
In its new “strategic concept”, Nato argues that China poses “systemic challenges” to Euro-Atlantic security even though Russia remains “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security”.
China responded to the Nato assessment by urging the alliance to “stop provoking confrontation by drawing ideological lines”.
Germany will soon unveil a new national security strategy, but the European Union last year also adopted a “strategic compass” that raised concerns about China’s “increasingly assertive regional behaviour”.
The EU had “a crucial geopolitical and economic interest in stability and security” in the Indo-Pacific and would increase exercises, patrols and port calls with partners, according to the document.
