Critical infrastructure such as electricity and gas cables on the Baltic Sea seabed have been subjected to repeated sabotage recently. Now the Finnish government is inviting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to a select NATO summit in the capital Helsinki together with the Estonian government. The summit will take place on Tuesday, January 14.
The agenda is security in the Baltic Sea and how the critical infrastructure on the seabed can be better protected. The Finnish government reports this in a press release. The handling of the Russian shadow fleet will also be discussed.
- The meeting will discuss strengthening NATO's presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to the threat from the Russian shadow fleet, the announcement further states.
In addition to the Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, and the Estonian Prime Minister, Kristen Michal, a number of other countries are also participating.
This concerns Germany in the form of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Latvian President, Edgars Rinkevics, the Lithuanian President, Gitanas Nauséda, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, and NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte.
Suspected sabotage
As recently as December, underwater power and data cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged. The Finnish authorities suspect that this is a case of direct sabotage, where a ship has deliberately pulled its anchor over the cables.
Specifically, this is the ship Eagle S, which sailed from St. Petersburg in Russia on the night of December 25. Finland boarded the ship shortly afterwards to investigate it.
Customs authorities believe that the ship, which sails under the Cook Islands flag, is part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet. The ships in the shadow fleet are believed to circumvent international sanctions against Russia by sailing with Russian goods without sailing under the Russian flag.
Shortly before the "Eagle S." came into the spotlight of the Finnish authorities, several countries around the Baltic Sea were focusing on the Chinese ship "Yi Peng 3". This ship was anchored in the Kattegat for several weeks and is suspected of causing the breakage of several cables in the Baltic Sea in November.
/ritzau/
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