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NATO Ships in the Aegean Sea – The German Navy Flagship FGS BONN

Natochannel

March 3, 2016 | 3:35

SNMG2 currently consists of German Navy flagship FGS BONN, Canadian Navy frigate HMCS FREDERICTON, Turkish Navy frigate TCG BARBAROS and Greek Navy frigate HS SALAMIS. The units are patrolling in the assigned areas and conducting reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance activities. Exclusive footage from inside the German Navy flagship FGS BONN in the Aegean Sea and interview with the NATO Commander, Rear Admiral Jörg Klein.

FGS BONN Broll (Soundbites)

1. (00:00 – 03:58) ENGLISH SOUNDBITE – REAR ADMIRAL JÖRG KLEIN, Commander of Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2).
“The migrant crisis is one of the largest crises we have seen in the last years. And two weeks ago, the North Atlantic Council at ministerial level decided to engage in this crisis. As a first measure, my group was sent into the Aegean Sea to provide for first and visible reminder of NATO’s solidarity and cohesion at sea. My group is operating in these waters since 13th February and our mission basically is to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and monitoring, up to now, on the open seas.” ”This force consists up to five ships supported by an auxiliary that can be an oiler. The nations provide these ships to my command and the ships rotate in and out throughout the year.” ”NATO can be a game-changer in the scenario because we have capabilities all the other organisations operating within this framework, might not have. Or we have them to a better extent with better quality, and we have the possibilities to exchange information with the systems we have. We have picture compilation systems. So that are all things where we might be able to support the organisations working on this right now.” ”We are in close contact with the Turkish and the Greek cost guard. We already had our first meetings and we agreed to exchange the information we have basically on VHF as well as on phone, so we have an idea where the migrants flows are, we have an idea basically what we see, and we can provide the information we are collecting via these means, via all means we have on board this ship, to the coast guards, so that they can react. The same applies for Frontex as well. Frontex is part of this at the tactical level. We will exchange the information as best as we can with Frontex as well. And the means for the information exchange are currently under evaluation, how we address basically the needs of the units of the coast guards and Frontex operating in that area, how we can support them best.” ”From my point of view, it is is an issue addressing all Europe. We have a migrant crisis that is just not related only to the countries which are at the European borders, but it’s affecting even us in Germany and even northern parts of Europe as well. So this can be only addressed in a common approach. It is not the problem of a single country, it’s a challenge basically for the whole European Union and of course neighbouring countries. We need to include them in our efforts as well.” ”If we have a case where we have a risk for the lives of the people in the boats, of course it is the obligation, in the framework of international law, of all commanding officers to save these people. It’s the so-called SOLAS case. These cases are done … they are in the responsibility of the commanding officers, they are done under national authorities. So in this case, NATO of course is giving the ship back to the national authorities, to deal with this crisis, to deal with this event and to rescue the people. Thereafter, after the people have been rescued, they will of course on board receive medical treatment and they will be taken care of, so that we can ensure that they are safe.”