Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris have called on NATO to take measures to protect maritime infrastructure following incidents involving damage to submarine cables in the Baltic Sea.
On Wednesday, the EstLink 2 transmission line between Finland and Estonia failed, the Finnish power grid company Fingrid reported. The cause of the failure is unknown. Finnish police said they were investigating whether a foreign cargo ship was involved in cutting the power cable.Fingrid said two ships were near the cable at the time of the cut.
"The protection of maritime infrastructure should be increased both at the NATO level and bilaterally as a key priority of cooperation in the Baltic Sea," Nauseda wrote on social networks.
According to the president of Lithuania, the cases of cable breakage in the Baltic countries "do not seem to be a coincidence anymore".
"The growing number of underwater incidents in the Baltic Sea affecting critical infrastructure should serve as a stark and urgent warning to both NATO and the EU. All mechanisms within the framework of NATO, international and regional security formats should be involved. It is also necessary to discuss the updated rules of navigation in the shallow seas," Budris wrote on the social network.
He added that Lithuania is in contact with Estonian and Finnish partners regarding the EstLink2 cable incident and is ready to support the investigation.
Currently, there are two electrical connections between Estonia and Finland: The 350 MW EstLink 1 was commissioned in 2006, and the 650 MW EstLink 2 in 2014. EstLink 2 consists of switching stations in Estonia and Finland and more than 170 kilometers of DC lines, of which approximately 145 kilometers are underwater.
Finnish operator Cinia Oy reported on November 18 that the C-Lion 1 submarine cable between Finland and Germany was damaged and not working. Later, Lithuanian and Swedish media reported that the submarine cable between Sweden and Lithuania was also damaged, and Swedish authorities are investigating. Finland's central criminal police are investigating the C-Lion 1 cable break.Swedish prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into the damage, describing it as sabotage.
