Baltic leaders discuss undersea pipeline and cable security

1 month ago 28

NATO leaders gathering successful the Finnish superior Helsinki connected Tuesday said European countries indispensable beryllium prepared to look further incidents successful the Baltic Sea. 

This follows the caller harm oregon disruption to a drawstring of undersea powerfulness cable, telcommunications links, and state pipelines successful the aftermath of Russia's 2022 penetration of Ukraine.

Latvian President Edgar Rinkevics acknowledged that with much than 2,000 ships crossing the engaged waterway each day, afloat sum would beryllium hard to achieve. 

"Let's look it, we can't guarantee 100% extortion but if we are sending a bold awesome past I deliberation that specified incidens are going to alteration oregon adjacent stop," helium told reporters up of Tuesday's meeting. 

Reports from Poland of vessel caught loitering adjacent cables

As the leaders convened, Polish nationalist TV reported a caller incidental of a Russian "shadow fleet" vessel circling astir the Baltic Pipe that delivers state from Norway to Poland. 

Polish authorities broadcaster TVP World cited an unnamed foreign ministry root erstwhile reporting the caller information. 

"Shadow fleet" refers to vessels utilized by Russia to determination oil, arms and grains astir successful usurpation of planetary sanctions imposed connected it implicit the Ukraine war. The vessels are not regulated oregon insured by accepted Western providers.

Scholz hopes to 'ensure greater security' successful Baltic Sea

The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, arsenic good arsenic European Commissioner for technological sovereignty and security, Henna Virkkunen, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attended Tuesday's talks. 

Finnish constabulary past period seized a tanker carrying Russian oil, saying they suspected it had damaged the Estlink 2 powerfulness enactment linking Finland and Estonia, arsenic good arsenic 4 telecommunications cables, by dragging its anchor on the seabed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said connected Tuesday that this and other caller incidents successful the Baltic Sea, including disconnected Germany's bluish coast, indispensable beryllium assumed to beryllium portion of a hybrid strategy. 

"It is important that we travel unneurotic present present and speech astir however we tin enactment unneurotic to guarantee greater information successful the Baltic Sea region," Scholz said.

msh/kb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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