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 breaking of underwater cables, considered a possible act of sabotage.

“We have been in contact with both the ship and China and have let them know that we want the ship 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 just the desire, on the part of Sweden, for the ship to reach Swedish territorial waters so that we can cooperate more easily to understand what happened.”he assured.

On November 17 and 18, sections of two telecommunications cables were cut, both located in Swedish waters of the Baltic Sea. HE Yi-Peng-3, A bulk carrier built in 2001 sailed into the area of ​​the cables around the time they were cut, 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 Kattegat Strait, between Sweden and Denmark, has raised doubts. Due to tensions around the Baltic Sea since the outbreak of the Russian 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 were revived

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

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

Two judicial investigations are underway, one of which is being carried out by the Swedish police for “sabotage” and concerns two damage to cables that occurred in Swedish waters. The Arelion telecommunications cable, which connects the Swedish island of Gotland with Lithuania, was damaged on the morning of Sunday the 17th. On Monday morning a second submarine cable, C-Lion1, connecting Finland with Germany, broke.

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

“Situations of this type must be evaluated taking into account the growing threat that Russia poses in our neighborhood”declared the Swedish and Lithuanian defense ministers. According to the Finnish and Swedish media, the yi-peng-3which left the Baltic Sea early on Tuesday, followed by the Danish navy, after passing through a Russian port, may also have played a role in the two incidents.