Sweden on Tuesday requested 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 ship to head towards Swedish territorial waters,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a press conference, stressing that the objective was not to make an “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 cables. incidents. The fact that the ship has remained anchored since 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 actions taken by Moscow to harm them. The Kremlin considered it “laughable” and “absurd” to accuse Russia of being behind the rupture of the two cables.
