During her visit to Tokyo Mecklenburg-Vorpommern hosted a reception given aboard by German President Johannes Rau, and attended by the Japanese imperial couple, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

[2] Mecklenburg-Vorpommern resumed her work with Operation Enduring Freedom between November 2004 and April 2005, serving as the flagship for Flotilla Admiral Henning Hoops as commander of Combined Task Force 150.

[5] On 28 November 2008, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern dispatched a helicopter to rescue three crew members from a Liberian-registered chemical tanker MV Biscaglia who had jumped overboard during a successful pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.

Later that day she came to the assistance of the cruise ship MS Astor, which was transiting the Gulf of Oman en route from Sharm-al-Sheikh in Egypt to Dubai.

[6][7] On 11 February 2014 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern deployed from Wilhelmshaven with the frigates Hamburg and Augsburg, the corvette Oldenburg and the storeship Frankfurt am Main to take part in the navy's annual training and exercises.

These concluded at Kiel on 20 June 2014, during which time the ships carried out manoeuvrers as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as the Equator, visiting 13 ports in nine countries.

While transiting the Kiel Canal near Schülp bei Rendsburg on 9 December 2015 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was involved in a collision with the Cypriot-flagged container ship Nordic Bremen.

[9] On 16 August 2016 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern left Wilhelmshaven to participate in the EU Navfor Med mission in the Mediterranean from mid-September.