NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg(L, front), German Chancellor Angela Merkel(C, front) and French President Francois Hollande(R, front) watch the air show during the opening ceremony of the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland on July 8, 2016. (Xinhua/Shi Zhongyu)

BERLIN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The German cabinet approved a mandate on Wednesday offering military assistance in the NATO-led maritime security operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deployment of 650 German armed soldiers will last from October 2016 until end of 2017, so as to "develop a comprehensive overview of the situation for the Mediterranean," according to the German government.

However, the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, must first give their approval.

Sea Guardian was launched by NATO leaders during the two-day Warsaw Summit in July.

With the mission, crises and maritime terrorism in the Mediterranean should be detected early. It also includes the powers to check and search ships with the consent of the flag state, if the ships are suspected of having connections to terrorist organizations.