Baltic NATO members plan to discuss security in the region at a summit in Helsinki on Tuesday, taking place in the wake of a recent series of alleged acts of sabotage at sea.
The main purpose of the summit is to find ways to better protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and counter the threat posed by the so-called Russian shadow fleet.
This refers, for example, to ships used by Russia to transport oil to circumvent sanctions imposed for its invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting was chaired by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Estonian Prime Minister Kristin Michal. Leaders of NATO countries in the Baltic region are also expected to participate, including Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte traveled from Brussels and European Commission Vice-President Henna Verkunen represented the EU. Russia, the only Baltic state outside NATO, is not involved.
The summit was a response from NATO participating countries to recent incidents in which several cables in the Baltic Sea were allegedly deliberately cut.
In two of the cases, the cables were fiber optic cables running between Helsinki and the northern German city of Rostock.
In the latest incident, the cable between Finland and Estonia was also damaged, with the tanker Eagle S suspected to have been damaged by its anchor. The ship flies the Cook Islands flag but according to the EU, it belongs to Russia’s shadow fleet.
