Baerbock: Germany wants to expand defence cooperation with Australia

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to further expand defence cooperation with Australia, she said during the first day of her trip to the country.

However, she did not name any specific projects on Friday following a meeting with her counterpart Penny Wong in Adelaide, South Australia.

"Defence cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we want to deepen it further," Baerbock said.

After all, both countries are in a situation "where we have to assume similar threats," she added, referring to the threats from Russia for Europe and China for Australia.

Baerbock underlined the willingness to cooperate in the defence sector with a visit to the Osborne shipyard, where German company Lürssen is building six patrol boats for the Australian Navy, one of which the minister viewed.

Another German-Australian flagship project in the defence sector is the production of 123 Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles by German manufacturer Rheinmetall in Australia, which are to be delivered to the Bundeswehr between 2025 and 2030.

Next week, the German frigate Baden-Württemberg and a supply ship will set off on a training mission to the Pacific lasting several months.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong praised Germany's involvement in the Indo-Pacific region.

"We welcome the way in which Germany exercises its influence in the world and in our region," she said. Australia is striving for a stronger economic and strategic partnership with Germany, she added.

Following the meeting with Wong, Baerbock officially returned cultural artefacts to the Kaurna Aboriginal tribe.

The items in question are a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club, all of which were sent to Germany by two missionaries in the 19th century and were last on display in Leipzig's Grassi Museum of Ethnology.

"Each of these items holds countless stories. Stories of how the Kaurna people lived over 150 years ago," Baerbock said at the handover ceremony in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.

She said she wanted to honour the Kaurna's spiritual relationship with their country.

Baerbock had planned to hand over the cultural artefacts in person last August. However, she had to cancel her trip on the way there due to breakdowns of her government aircraft.

The Grassi Museum then brought the artefacts to Australia on its own. With the ceremony in Adelaide on Friday, the handover is now officially sealed.

The proportion of Australia's Indigenous population today is around 4%. The history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples goes back 60,000 years. Before British colonization at the end of the 18th century, there were around 700 tribes. Only 20 of their 300 languages at that time are still spoken today.

Australia is the first stop on Baerbock's week-long trip to the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world in terms of area, but is relatively sparsely populated with around 26 million inhabitants.

It is a member of the G20 group of leading economic powers and, despite the geographic distance, supports Ukraine with weapons in its defence against Russia.