Sweden has officially asked China to cooperate with the investigation into the damage to two cables in the Baltic Sea after a Chinese ship was linked to the incidents.
The cables – one connecting Sweden and Lithuania, the other connecting Finland and Germany – were damaged in Swedish territory in the Baltic Sea on 17 and 18 November.
A Chinese vessel, the Yi Peng Three, is believed to have been in the area at the time and has been docked in international waters off Denmark.
China has denied involvement in the sabotage.
The Yi Peng Three left the Russian port of Ust-Luga, west of St Petersburg, on 15 November.
Early on 17 November, the Arelion cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania was damaged.
The next day, the C-Lion 1 cable between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the German port Rostock was cut.
Information from ship-tracking websites suggests that the Yi Peng Three sailed over the cables at the time each one was cut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, investigators suspect that the ship intentionally damaged the cables by dropping and dragging its anchor in the sea for more than 160km (100 miles).
The ship has been in the Kattegat strait – the strait between Sweden and Denmark that connects the Baltic Sea and the North Sea – since November 19 and is under Danish surveillance.
On Thursday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference that his government had “sent a formal request to China to cooperate with Swedish authorities to clarify what happened”.
“We think it is very important to find out what happened, and of course, we expect China to comply with the request we sent,” he said.
He also reiterated an earlier request that the vessel return to Swedish waters so the vessel could be searched as part of the investigation, although he added that he was not committing a “crime” of any kind.
The period since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has seen an increase in conflicts in the Baltic Sea and a number of incidents involving damage to undersea infrastructure.
In September 2022, a series of explosions blew holes in two Nord Stream gas pipelines between western Europe and Russia, and in October 2023 damage was done to an undersea communications cable between Estonia and Sweden.
Speaking last week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said of the latest incident that “no one believes that the cables were accidentally cut”, although he did not specify who he believed to be responsible.
Russia dismissed the suggestion that it might be involved as “absurd” and “ridiculous”.
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