NATO launches ‘Baltic Sentry’ mission to protect submarine cables

NATO has launched a new mission to increase surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after critical undersea cables were damaged or cut last year.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said the “Baltic Sentry” mission will include more patrol planes, warships and drones.

His announcement was made at a summit in Helsinki, attended by all NATO countries located in the Baltic Sea: Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.

Although Russia was not directly blamed for the damage to the cables, Rutte said NATO would step up control of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – vessels of unclear ownership used to transport embargoed oil products.

Tensions between NATO countries and Russia have been steadily increasing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“There is cause for concern about infrastructure damage,” Rutte said. He added that Nato would respond strongly to such accidents by boarding and, if necessary, seizing more suspicious vessels.

He declined to share more details about the number of assets that will take part in the Baltic Sentry initiative, saying that this could change from time to time and that he did not want to make “the enemy smarter than he already is”.

Submarine infrastructure is essential not only for power supply, but also because more than 95 percent of Internet traffic is secured through submarine cables, Rutte said, adding that “1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) of cables secure $10 trillion in financial value . transactions every day.”

In a post on X, he said NATO would do “whatever it takes to ensure the safety and security of our critical infrastructure and everything we hold dear.”

Unexplained damage to maritime infrastructure in the Baltic has increased in recent months.

The most recent accident in undersea infrastructure Cut an electricity cable running between Finland and Estonia at the end of December

Finnish coast guard crews boarded the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S and steered it into Finnish waters, while Estonia deployed a patrol vessel to protect its undersea power cable.

On Monday, Risto Lohi of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters that the Eagle S was threatening to cut a second electricity cable and a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia when it was intercepted.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in December that damage to submarine infrastructure had become “so frequent” that he doubted whether the damage could be “accidental” or “purely poor sailing”.

Tsahkna did not directly blame Russia. Neither did Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who said on Sunday that while Sweden was not jumping to conclusions or “accusing anyone of sabotage without a very strong reason,” it was “not naive.”

“The security situation and the repeated occurrence of strange things in the Baltic Sea also make us believe that hostile intentions cannot be ruled out.”

“There is little evidence that a ship can accidentally and unwittingly … cause damage without understanding,” he said.