Regional leaders stress need for patrols after Baltic Sea cable damage incidents

VILNIUS - The Baltic leaders have stressed the need for sea patrols following the incidents in the Baltic Sea last month when communications cables were damaged.

"First of all, I'm thinking about a joint maritime patrol of the Baltic Sea, involving the Baltic countries, Poland, Sweden and Finland. … Common patrolling will show that we take action and we take our responsibility very seriously, and we are able to protect our critical infrastructure," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told a joint press conference with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts in Klaipeda on Friday

The idea of a "Baltic Sea policing mission" was first raised by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a meeting of Baltic and Nordic representatives in Sweden earlier this month. Tusk proposed the idea after two underwater telecommunications cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea on November 17, with a Chinese-flagged ship from Russia being suspected of having to do with the incidents.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has called it an act of sabotage.

Moscow, which has recently stepped up its hybrid warfare campaign against Europe, rejects allegations that it had anything to do with the cable incidents. Beijing also denies any involvement.

As part of the pre-trial investigation into the cable damage, the heads of the Lithuanian, Finnish and Swedish prosecution services and law enforcement agencies have decided to set up a joint investigation team.

"And this is more than obvious that the number of hybrid attacks, hybrid threats in the upcoming years will only increase, including the Baltic Sea. And we have to take action, first of all at the NATO level, the response must be swifter and we have to take action also in the countries around the Baltic Sea," Nauseda said.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics also backs the idea as says one needs to wait for the investigation results to plan next steps, pointing to the complexity of the situation.

"No 1 thing is that we really need to get the investigation to understand what happened and based on the conclusions of the investigation then we should decide on the further course of action," he said.

His stance is echoed by Estonian President Alar Karis.

"We can't be 100 percent sure we'll manage to avoid these kinds of things. But we have to put as much effort to defend our infrastructure as possible," he said.