Nato intensifies presence in the Baltic Sea to protect submarine infrastructure

Ten ships will patrol the waters until April to defend energy and communication cables, while Finland and Estonia investigate suspected acts of sabotage

Nato has decided to strengthen its military presence in the Baltic Sea by sending ships to protect crucial undersea infrastructure, in response to recent disruptions to power and data cables between Finland and Estonia. According to a report by Finnish broadcaster Yle, the large-scale operation will begin later this week and will involve around ten Alliance ships, which will remain at sea until April. In addition to the ships already operating in the Baltic, vessels from NATO countries will be sent.

The ships will be positioned in the vicinity of energy and data cables, with the main task of acting as a deterrent. However, they will not be able to prevent ships from other countries from passing through international waters, the report states. Meanwhile, Finnish and Estonian ships will also continue to patrol the Gulf of Finland.

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), comprising ten NATO member states, announced the use of artificial intelligence to monitor maritime traffic near critical infrastructure.

This Nato decision was made on 30 December at the request of Finland and Estonia, after recent incidents of damage to submarine cables between the two countries. In particular, on Christmas Day, an electricity cable and four data cables were disrupted on suspicion of deliberate sabotage.

Finland launched a criminal investigation into the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, suspected of belonging to the ‘ghost fleet’ used by Russia to export oil circumventing sanctions. It is believed that the ship’s anchor may have deliberately caused the damage to the cables. The eight crew members were detained in Finland and the ship was detained for serious deficiencies found during an inspection.

This is not the first incident of this kind: on 18 November the submarine cable C-Lion1 between Finland and Germany was severed, and on the same day another communication cable was damaged between Lithuania and Sweden.

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