The agency emphasised that for Germany, “Turkey remains an important NATO partner”.
Ankara’s accusations of an illegal attempt by the German military to inspect the Turkish vessel Rosaline A as part of the EU Irini operation have no basis in fact. This was stated by German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum on Tuesday.
“It is important for me to say clearly that the Bundeswehr soldiers acted quite correctly,” she said. – “They did what is required of them under the European mandate. There is no basis for these accusations, which are now being made against the military [of the Bundeswehr by Ankara]”, – emphasized Kramp-Carrenbauer. In her view, the incident of the inspection of the Turkish ship is an indication of the challenges facing the Irini mission.
However, the Minister stressed that for Germany, “Turkey remains an important NATO partner”.