Last Monday, June 12, EU ministers formally approved German-led military operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mission plans to have all troops deployed before Congolese presidential and parliamentary elections on July 30.

According to German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, the UN requested security assistance from the EU. The mission will begin July 30, the day of Congolese national elections, and last four months. Jung stated, “I think we must realize that this is the first opportunity after 45 years for a democratic election in a country where 4 million people have died and to contribute to a peaceful and democratic development. I think that’s our mission and we are taking it on as part of the European Union.”

Germany will send 780 troops alongside 500 French soldiers and troops from 16 other EU members, for a total EU representation of about 1,500.

As Spiegel Online reported, “The Bundeswehr troops will be the largest contingent in the European Union mission to the African nation being sent to support the some 17,000 United Nations troops already there.”

The mission isn’t without critics. Even inside the Congo, some parties campaigning in the presidential elections are claiming that Europeans want to secure a position in the country. “Opposition parties have condemned what they perceive as one-sided preference from abroad for the sitting president, Joseph Kabila. Slogans have appeared attacking ‘foreigners who want to run Congo’” (EUbusiness, May 17).

In Europe, some have questioned whether the deployment makes sense strategically. According to one German politician, the move is “politically wrong, contradictory and unsuited to stabilizing Congo.”

Walter Kolbow, a deputy parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, said that “Germany has a security political interest in a successful stabilization of the (Democratic Republic of) Congo, based on the principles of European security strategies. We must address the problems on location before the problems come to us.”

About 7,000 German troops are currently deployed in missions abroad, mainly in the Balkans and Afghanistan.

Only 60 years ago, it would have been difficult and shocking to believe that Europe and the United Nations (founded the year World War ii ended) would eventually look to Germany for military leadership. Watch Europe, and other nations including Israel, increasingly rely on Germany to keep the peace. That country’s rise to prestige has enormous prophetic implications.