NATO leaders gathering in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on Tuesday said European countries must be prepared to face further incidents in the Baltic Sea and announced a new mission designed to deter them.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said after the meeting that a new mission dubbed Baltic Sentry would include frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and a fleet of naval drones to provide “enhanced surveillance and deterrence.”
“Across the alliance, we have seen elements of a campaign to destabilize our societies through cyberattacks, assassination attempts and sabotage, including possible sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea,” Rutte told reporters.
Tuesday’s meeting followed the recent damage or disruption to a string of undersea power cables, telcommunications links, and gas pipelines in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics acknowledged that with more than 2,000 ships crossing the busy waterway every day, full coverage would be hard to achieve.
“Let’s face it, we can’t ensure 100% protection but if we are sending a bold signal then I think that such incidents are going to decrease or even stop,” he told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
Poland: Report of new ship caught loitering near pipeline was mistaken
As the leaders convened, Polish public TV reported a fresh incident of a Russian “shadow fleet” ship circling around the Baltic Pipe that delivers gas from Norway to Poland.
Polish state broadcaster TVP World had cited an unnamed Polish Foreign Ministry source.
However, the Foreign Ministry and military later said the event reported on Tuesday “did not happen.”
“Shadow fleet” refers to vessels used by Russia to move oil, arms and grains around in violation of international sanctions imposed on it over the Ukraine war. The vessels are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.
Scholz hopes to ‘ensure greater security’ in Baltic Sea
The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden and European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty and Security Henna Virkkunen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attended Tuesday’s talks.
Finnish police last month seized a tanker carrying Russian oil, saying they suspected it had damaged the Estlink 2 power line linking Finland and Estonia, as well as four telecommunications cables, by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that this and other recent incidents in the Baltic Sea, including off Germany’s northern coast, must be assumed to be part of a hybrid strategy.
“It is important that we come together here now and talk about how we can work together to ensure greater security in the Baltic Sea region,” Scholz said.
msh/kb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
