KLAIPEDA – The Lithuanian Navy has dispatched a mine countermeasures vessel to monitor the NordBalt power link with Sweden, in response to incidents in the Baltic Sea where a gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable between Finland and Estonia were damaged.
According to the Navy, an inspection of the NordBalt cable in the Baltic Sea area assigned to it has found that the cable is safe.
"The main undersea infrastructure is the NordBalt power cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania. In response to the situation in the Baltic Sea, the Navy has sent its mine countermeasures ship to monitor this cable to ensure that are no submarine objects nearby and that the facility is under surveillance for added security," Lithuanian Navy Commander Giedrius Premeneckas told reporters on Friday.
The monitoring of the Butinge crude terminal has also been reinforced.
The military say they are maintaining communication and exchanging information with the NATO headquarters.
The Finish and Estonian natural gas system operators said on October 8 that they had detected an unusual pressure drop in Balticconnector, which led them to shut down the gas flow.
On October 10, Helsinki said that a telecom cable between Finland and Estonia, both NATO members, had also been damaged and that the leak in the gas pipeline had been likely caused by external activity.
Finnish police said Tuesday they believed that the pipeline had been damaged by a Chinese container ship's dislodged anchor.
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