Swedish officials want answers about mysterious Baltic Sea cable damage
Two undersea cables in Baltic Sea got damaged within 24-hours causing communication issues between several countries. Swedish authorities seek cooperation from Chinese ship that was near incident area
In mid-november two under-sea communication lines got damaged in Baltic Sea causing a stir among northern European nations. The fiber-optic cables connecting Finland-Germany and Sweden-Lithuania stopped working within a day of each-other
The Danish navy keeps watch on Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 which was spotted near the damage sites. The vessel left Russias Ust-Luga port on 11/15 and now sits in Danish waters: its movements match with both cable breach locations
Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson asked the Chinese ship to come back to Swedish waters for investigation purposes. “We dont make accusations but need to understand what happened“ - he said while noting that its the second such incident in about a year. The damage happened in Swedens economic zone which makes them lead investigators
Last year a similar case happened when some under-sea infrastructure (including gas pipeline and data-cables) got damaged in Baltic Sea. Finnish police think a Chinese ships anchor might have caused that damage but nobody knows if it was on-purpose or by accident
The Chinese government says they keep in touch with all sides about this case. Meanwhile Kristersson hopes Beijing will agree to help with the probe - as international cooperation is key to solving such cross-border incidents
