In July, the Bulgarian ruling parties passed a law withdrawing Lukoil's licence to ship Russian oil from Burgas on the Black Sea for further processing. Bulgaria hopes that this will enable it to join the Schengen area for free and safe travel in Europe as early as the autumn. Economic policy The oil harbour...
The state development bank KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) is authorised to provide financial support to the German energy company RWE and the Dutch energy network operator Gasunie. Energy security The landing point for liquefied natural gas will improve the supply and gas infrastructure in Germany and thus also contribute to the EU's energy security. The measure that has now been approved contains sufficient precautions to prevent any distortions of competition...
In April 2023, the presidents of South Korea and the United States agreed that a US Navy submarine equipped with nuclear weapons would visit South Korea again. This is part of a bilateral agreement on improving the "regular visibility" of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula and a response to repeated threats and the ongoing nuclear proliferation in the...
After the "FAZ" headlined in June 2023: "thyssenkrupp makes submarine division ready for sale", Oliver Burkhard, head of tkMS, confirmed on Twitter that the first steps towards independence were being taken. This was tkMS' reaction to statements made last week by the head of the Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri. In a conversation with...
US President Joe Biden has nominated Admiral Lisa Franchetti to succeed Admiral Michael Gilday as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO - Chief of Staff U.S. Navy), who has been in office since August 2019. If the decision is confirmed, she would be the first woman to head a branch of the US military as Commander-in-Chief and also the first female to hold the position of...
The extent to which critical infrastructure has become a pawn in current threats is demonstrated by the dependence of Taiwan's Matsu and Kinmen Islands on intact submarine cables. Although these small island groups lie deep within the Chinese coast, they are part of Taiwan's national territory (as are the Pescadores Islands in the Taiwan Strait). Tangle of cables The dozen small...
The Dutch government has assigned the Ministry of Defence the permanent task of monitoring potential threats in the Dutch part of the North Sea. Adversarial reconnaissance The Dutch government is thus recognising the risk of sabotage against vital maritime infrastructure and gaining a better picture of threats in the North Sea. The mapping of, for example, internet cables,...
The European Union is planning to lay a new 1,100-kilometre data cable in the Black Sea in order to bypass the existing terrestrial connection (fibre optic) to Georgia, which is considered "unsafe" and "unstable" because it runs through Russia. Such a connection was already being considered before Russia's invasion of Ukraine,...
In April 2023, the presidents of South Korea and the United States agreed that a US Navy submarine equipped with nuclear weapons would visit South Korea again. This is part of a bilateral agreement to improve the "regular visibility" of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula and in response to North Korea's repeated threats and progressive nuclearisation....
From a press release of the naval command in Rostock: On Wednesday, 19 July, 13:30, the task force provider (EGV) "Frankfurt am Main" under the command of frigate captain Hanno Weisensee (47) will leave its home port of Wilhelmshaven heading for the north-eastern Mediterranean. In the Aegean, the crew and the ship are expected to work closely together...
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