Sweden wants to see clearly the case of the Chinese ship suspected of having cut two underwater fiber optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea last 17 and 18 November. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wants to continue the investigation into the vessel flying the flag of the People’s Republic, which is now anchored off the coast of Denmark, where it is guarded by the Danish navy.
Chinese ship, Russian captain: what we know about the alleged sabotage of cables in the Baltic
Sweden therefore requests that the Yi Peng 3, the cargo ship owned by the Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, leave the Kattegat Strait, between Sweden and Denmark, and move to Swedish waters to facilitate the investigation. Speaking at a press conference today, Kristersson declared that he is in “contact with the ship and with China”. “We are not making accusations, but we want to clarify what happened,” Kristersson said. However, the accident occurred in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and, for this reason, the Swedish prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation.
The accusation of sabotage linked to the war in Ukraine
Let’s rewind the tape to understand what happened. The Yi Peng 3, a bulk carrier (bulk carrier, designed to transport loose products such as cereals), would have passed close to the two submarine cables, namely the Finnish-German one, the C-Lion, which connects Helsinki to the German port of Rostock for 1,200 kilometers, and the Swedish-Lithuanian one, the Bcs InterWest Interlink, which connects Lithuania to the Swedish island of Gotland and is controlled by the Lithuanian company Telia Lietuva, precisely when they were cut. At the moment there are few elements that could confirm the direct responsibility of the Chinese ship in the two accidents. Swedish and Finnish police have launched investigations to shed light on what happened in the waters of the Baltic Sea, while some European countries, including Germany, have said they suspect “sabotage” linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin rejected the comments as “absurd” and “ridiculous, while China’s Foreign Ministry denied any responsibility in the matter.
The precedents in the Baltic
The episode was reminiscent of other incidents in the Baltics treated by authorities as malicious, including last year, when the Balticonnector gas pipeline linking Finland and Estonia was damaged and suspicion fell on a Chinese ship that had been operating in the area. And again, in 2022, when part of the Nord Stream gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany in the Baltic Sea was destroyed by an explosion. In the case, still under investigation, there is also talk of Ukraine’s involvement. With the multiplication of accidents, Western attention towards the underwater domain has also increased, which also plays a more central role in the latest NATO strategic documents.
