Sweden wants suspicious Chinese cargo ship to reach its territorial waters

Sweden requested, on Tuesday, November 26, that the Chinese cargo ship anchored off its coast return to its territorial waters, in order to contribute to the investigation into the rupture of submarine cables, considered a possible act of sabotage.

“We have been in contact with the ship as well as with China and we have made it known that we want the boat to head towards Swedish territorial waters”declared Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a press conference, specifying that the objective was not to launch« accusation ». “It is only the desire, on the part of Sweden, that the ship reaches Swedish territorial waters so that we can more easily cooperate to understand what happened”he assured.

Sections of two telecommunications cables, both located in Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea, were cut on November 17 and 18. THE Yi-Peng-3, a bulk carrier built in 2001, sailed into the area of ​​the cables around the time they were severed, according to ship tracking sites, although there is no indication it was involved in the incidents.

The fact that the ship has remained anchored since last Tuesday in the narrow Kattegat Strait, between Sweden and Denmark, has raised questions. Due to tensions around the Baltic Sea since the outbreak of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, several leaders have raised the possibility of a “hybrid attack”in reference to the actions carried out by Moscow to harm them.

Suspicions of sabotage rekindled

The rupture of these two cables has revived suspicions of sabotage in Europe, particularly against Moscow. “This is laughable given the lack of response to Ukraine's sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea”mocked the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, referring to the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022 for which Moscow accused kyiv.

The first to raise the hypothesis of sabotage was the German defense minister: “No one believes these cables were cut by accident”declared Boris Pistorius on November 19.

Two legal investigations are underway, one of which is being conducted by the Swedish police for “sabotage” and concerns the two cable damages which occurred in Swedish waters. The telecommunications cable, the Arelion, connecting the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, was damaged on the morning of Sunday 17th. A second submarine cable, the C-Lion1, which connects Finland to Germany, broke on Monday morning.

At the same time, Finland opened an investigation for “aggravated criminal damage” and “aggravated interference with communications” concerning the damage to the German-Finnish cable.

“Situations of this type must be assessed taking into account the growing threat posed by Russia in our neighborhood”for their part declared the Swedish and Lithuanian defense ministers. According to Finnish and Swedish media, the Yi-Peng-3which left the Baltic Sea early Tuesday morning, followed by the Danish navy, after passing through a Russian port, may also have played a role in the two incidents.