Chapter 969 Limited Cooperation

Chapter 969 Limited Cooperation

"East Africa's current national strength is not enough to support the construction of an ocean-going navy. Moreover, traditional maritime powers such as Britain and France, as well as the rising star of the United States, have great advantages in their navies. If there is no accident, our increased naval construction will only trigger a naval competition between countries. This kind of catching up cannot narrow the gap between the navies of various countries. Therefore, every penny of the East African Navy must be carefully calculated, rather than invested in an endless naval arms race." Felix, the East African Minister of Defense, said to Tirpitz.

If it is a cooperation between two countries, in general, the stronger the ally, the better, which means that the own camp is stronger, just like Italy, the ally chosen by Germany in the previous life, even if it does not drag its feet, it may have a huge impact on the world situation.

The East African government is obviously only willing to cooperate with the German Navy in limited areas such as military technology and conventional exercises and training.

Tirpitz was naturally a little disappointed with the East African government's lack of ambition. In his opinion, East Africa is fully capable of becoming a powerful helper of the German Navy in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

"As a country in two oceans, or even three oceans (including the Pacific Ocean, East African colonies are mainly distributed in the Pacific Ocean), East Africa has defeated Britain. If you get the full support of Germany, you can gain greater voice in the Indian Ocean and become one of the founders of the new international order." Tirpitz still tried to pull East Africa into the water, so he tried his best to paint a rosy picture for East Africa.

Germany and East Africa are highly complementary. One is in the northern hemisphere and the other is in the southern hemisphere. There is no conflict of interest and the culture and race are similar. If East Africa can be tied to the German chariot, the German government will wake up with a smile in its dreams.

Apart from other things, if the East African navy expands, the most nervous ones are the British in the Indian Ocean, which can greatly share the pressure of the German navy.

Of course, this is Germany's idea. The East African government has three routes to choose from. One is to stand completely on the side of Germany, the second is to remain neutral, and the third is to stand on the side of the British.

If you choose one, it means that East Africa is very likely to join forces with Germany to fight against the Allies in the future. This is too risky for Ernst. In the past, the Allies led by Germany and the Allies were actually partly superior and inferior in military terms. If a country of East Africa joins the war, can it change the outcome of the war?

The answer is not necessarily. Although it seems that East Africa can increase the Allies' chances of winning if it stands on the Allies' side, East Africa can actually play a small role in the European war.

This also starts with the geographical location of East Africa. There are three main channels of communication between East Africa and Europe, namely the Suez Canal controlled by the United Kingdom, the British colony of Gibraltar, and the English Channel.

So even if East Africa wants to support Germany, it cannot be done in the short term. Moreover, Britain and France have a big blood bag, the United States, as a logistics support center, which further increases the uncertainty of the war.

As for option three, it is not very realistic at present. The relationship between East Africa and Britain is too bad, and the possibility of cooperation between the two countries is very small. Of course, it is not impossible. After all, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. If the British offer a high price, East Africa can stand on the side of the British.

Finally, there is the neutral route, which is also attractive to East Africa. The United States took this route in the early and middle stages of the war in the past, but this also made the United States not change the original world order after the war, and could only continue to watch Britain and France dominate the world situation.

All three routes are feasible, but as far as Ernst is concerned, he prefers neutrality, mainly because it has the lowest risk, and the first two may drag East Africa into the abyss of war.

Of course, the national policy of East Africa must be selected based on the actual situation in the end. The possibility of these three routes is three to four to three in Ernst's mind.

However, East Africa will definitely not join the conflict between Germany and Britain and France at present, which involves Ernst's judgment that a war will not occur in the next ten years.

So Ernst said: "The world pattern will be affected by various factors, and we in East Africa are too backward and weak, and we are not yet able to participate in the game of world power struggle. Of course, in terms of national sentiment and interests, we are definitely more willing for Germany to dominate the future world pattern."

Anyway, it's good to say it for free, and there is definitely no problem in complimenting Germany. If it is facing France, Ernst may say something similar.

Ernst's words finally had a certain effect. Although it did not meet Tirpitz's psychological expectations, there is no doubt that East Africa and Germany have close relations at present. It is an ironclad fact that the two countries have more common interests in culture, politics and economy.

As for East Africa's lack of enthusiasm for the world power struggle, it is understandable. Although East Africa is in good development, there is still a big gap with European and American countries. At the current stage, East Africa mainly focuses on developing domestic economy and industry, and does not need to reshape the world pattern as urgently as the United States and Germany.

The development of the United States and Germany has approached the limit of what their home countries can accommodate, so they urgently need more markets and raw material production areas, while their domestic markets and raw material supplies are close to the limit. The comprehensive national strength of the two countries has reached the standard of being able to compete with any country on the same stage.

East Africa has obviously not yet developed to this stage. There are still a large number of undeveloped areas in East Africa, the degree of industrialization is not high, and the national economy and population distribution are uneven. There is still a lot of potential that needs to be developed.

So the current demand for external markets in East Africa is not as strong as that in Germany and the United States. East Africa itself is a resource-rich country. At least in the current stage of industrial development, there is no shortage of raw materials, so the demand for raw materials is not as strong as that in Germany.

Therefore, the current main focus of East Africa is still on the local area. After East Africa completes its own resource development and economic construction, it will consider more far-reaching issues.

Although the attitude of the East African government towards the cooperation between the two countries cannot satisfy Germany's appetite, it is still useful, so Tirpitz can only reduce the huge plan he made when he came according to the requirements of the East African government.

In this case, Germany naturally cannot fully support East Africa. In fact, it cannot do so. East Africa is too large, and Germany can only play a role of icing on the cake at most.

In this way, a castrated version of the "East-German Naval Cooperation Plan" was released. Tirpitz stayed in East Africa for another week and returned to Germany to start drastic reforms.

The East-German Naval Cooperation Plan mainly realizes the sharing and development of some technical equipment in the field of technical equipment. At the same time, East Africa provides Germany with certain conveniences to support the future activities of the German Navy in overseas regions such as the Pacific.

Sharing and development of technical equipment, East Africa is interested in German battleship technology, while Germany, or Tirpitz, is more interested in East African submarine technology. Researchers from the two countries will exchange and cooperate in related fields.

Supporting Germany's activities in overseas regions such as the Pacific Ocean is mainly to provide the German Navy with port conveniences. However, as an independent country, East Africa is only supportive and it is impossible to cede its territory to Germany for use as a military base. At most, it can provide the German Navy with a temporary foothold and maintenance services.

The East-German Navy cooperation plan can only be regarded as limited cooperation. Under this cooperation plan, the East African Navy still adopts a conservative policy, but the communication with the German Navy is smoother, which is conducive to learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses and avoiding closed-door development.