Baltic foreign ministers to visit Washington this week

  • 2025-02-03
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - The foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries are about to visit Washington, DC, later this week.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys says the program of the visit includes discussions on the security of underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

"I'm sure one of the topics will be how we can strengthen security in the (Baltic) Sea through cooperation while also assessing the global implications for maritime security," Budrys told the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats political group in the parliament on Monday.

"We have the opportunity to talk about response measures (...). Threats of this kind have become a global issue," he added.

At least 11 submarine cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged since October 2023.

The latest incident occurred in late January when a fiber-optic cable connecting Latvia and Sweden's Gotland Island was damaged.

Budrys noted that more investment will be needed in the future to monitor activity on the seabed and to impose stricter navigation restrictions on uninsured vessels.

"We'll definitely discuss with our US colleagues the need to expand the measures we already have in place," he said.

Experts and politicians believe these incidents could be part of hybrid warfare orchestrated by Russia against the West.

Budrys noted that by spring, it should be clear to what extent national legislation needs to be adjusted to give authorities more power to respond to potential breaches.

"The way we classify these incidents will have to change -- it should be more like traffic regulations, where communication lines are clearly marked, and if you damage them, you are immediately held responsible, rather than someone having to prove whether you did it intentionally or unintentionally," the foreign minister said.

"These operations will come under much greater pressure, not to mention our broader expectation that the US will increase pressure on Putin's regime," he added.

Budrys said the EU's 16th sanctions package against Russia has to be better aligned when it comes to the lists of ships subject to sanctions, noting that the US has sanctioned twice as many ships as the EU.

In response to incidents, NATO launched a new surveillance mission, dubbed Baltic Sentry, in the Baltic Sea in January to prevent attacks on underwater infrastructure in the region.

"We are dealing with military escalation here, so the focus must be on a military response," Budrys said.