NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Alliance would strengthen its presence in the Baltic Sea after incidents where damage was recorded to submarine cables between different countries.
The Secretary General wrote about this in H.
Mark Rutte discussed with Finnish President Alexander Stubb the current Finnish investigation into the alleged sabotage of submarine cables.
"I expressed my full solidarity and support. NATO will strengthen its military presence in the Baltic Sea," Rutte wrote.
The Estonian government has decided to ask the International Maritime Organization by February to update maritime legislation, which it says currently does not cover underwater damage.
“We are interested in pushing the international maritime community to change or modernize international maritime law,” said Estonian Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta.
According to her, clarity in the law on how countries should deal with underwater damage cases minimizes the possibility of any disputes ending up in an international court.
The head of the Estonian Ministry of Justice emphasized that current maritime legislation well describes, for example, the problem of piracy, but does not solve the problem of damage to underwater infrastructure.
What preceded
On November 18, 2024, it became known that an underwater telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany had been broken. It runs alongside other important underwater infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables.
Lithuania later reported a break in a communications cable between their country and Sweden. Both incidents came just weeks after the US detected increased Russian military activity around major undersea cables. Germany believes the incidents were sabotage and a hybrid attack.
The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, wrote that the crew of the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is suspected of severing communication cables in the Baltic Sea. Investigators believe that the crew may have intentionally severed two important data transmission cables while dragging an anchor along the bottom of the Baltic Sea for more than 160 kilometers.
The Yi Peng 3 has a two-man crew: a Chinese captain and a Russian sailor. European investigations are now focused on whether the Chinese captain was recruited by Russian intelligence. Law enforcement officials say it is “extremely unlikely” that the captain did not see the dropped anchor, which slowed the ship for hours and tore cables in its path.
On Christmas Day, the afternoon of December 25, the Estlink 2 submarine power cable between Finland and Estonia broke. Two ships were sailing above it at the time of the incident.
Finnish law enforcement officers on December 27 stopped the Eagle S vessel, which may be involved in damaging the submarine cable between Finland and Estonia and may belong to Russiaʼs shadow fleet.
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