Sweden will participate in NATO’s operation to protect submarine cables in the Baltic Sea, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced at a defense conference.
The new NATO member will contribute warships and surveillance aircraft to the operation, Kristersson said.
NATO is stepping up its efforts to protect infrastructure in the Baltic Sea after several underwater cables were recently damaged in what allies believe could be an act of sabotage.
A total of ten ships will participate in the operation, reports dpa.
Initially, there was no official information about the operation from NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Kristersson refrained from making specific accusations, according to Swedish news agency TT, but said hostile intentions cannot be ruled out given that unusual things are happening in the Baltic Sea, which Sweden and neighboring countries will no longer tolerate.
The undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia and several other communication cables were damaged in the Gulf of Finland at the end of December.
Finnish investigators suspect that the oil tanker Eagle S, which sailed under the flag of the Cook Islands, intentionally caused the damage and are investigating possible sabotage.
The European Union believes the Eagle S belongs to Russia’s “shadow fleet” that is evading sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In mid-November, two more submarine cables were damaged, one between Finland and Germany, and the other between Sweden and Lithuania.
(Vijesti.ba/HINA)
