Joint Press Release by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defence

The military evacuation force – maintaining a rapid response capability, while reducing the number of forces stationed in Cyprus

The Bundeswehr generally maintains sufficient assets to conduct evacuation operations in order to flexibly respond to crises that arise anywhere in the world. Since 28 October, its evacuation force has been stationed in Cyprus and is ready to conduct military evacuation operations.

However, the long-term stationing of evacuation assets in one region reduces the German Government’s ability to respond to other scenarios.

The German Government is constantly and closely monitoring the tense situation in the Middle East and continues to call on all German nationals to leave Lebanon. Commercial flights can still be used for this purpose. The Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Foreign Office have liaised closely and examined various options regarding maintaining or reducing the forces on the ground.
As a result of this examination, and in close coordination with our international partners, the evacuation force that is on standby in Cyprus will be reduced this week, beginning tomorrow. A significant share of the evacuation force and its materiel will remain in Cyprus to maintain core readiness for immediate response and, if needed, for conducting military evacuation operations in theatre.

The forces that are being redeployed to Germany can be activated on short notice and rapidly respond should the situation deteriorate.