Sweden seeks clarity on suspected Chinese ship sabotage
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated, "We have been in contact with the ship and with China, and have stated that we want the ship to move toward Swedish waters." The bulk carrier has been in international waters in the Kattegat Strait since last week. The crew is suspected of damaging cables in the Baltic Sea.
Kristersson stressed that while they are eager to respond to that request, the Chinese authorities have not yet received it.
The crew of the Chinese ship is suspected of damaging two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. The Danish Navy and the Swedish Coast Guard are monitoring the vessel. The Danish broadcaster Danmarks Radio reported that the ship had a damaged anchor.
According to Kristersson, the Swedish authorities want to clarify what happened on the Baltic Sea floor. - We’re not making any accusations but we seek clarity on what has happened - he stressed.
On Monday, public broadcasters in Denmark and Sweden, DR and SVT, reported that diplomatic efforts are underway to convince the ship's crew to allow representatives of the Scandinavian authorities on board.
The status of international waters makes it difficult to search the ship or interview the sailors. Last week, the Swedish prosecutor's office investigated possible sabotage.
Over the weekend, the Swedish Navy, acting on the orders of the prosecutor's office in Stockholm and the police, completed documentation of the locations on the seabed where undersea cables were cut on November 17th and 18th. The telecommunications connections linking Lithuania with Sweden and Finland with Germany were damaged. Both locations are in the Swedish economic zone.
The Kattegat Strait is located between Denmark and Sweden.
Damaged ship anchor. "Twisted in an unusual way"
Experts cited by Danish media noted that the anchor's ends seem to display unusual twisting. Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen, a defense analyst at Nordic Defence Analysis, explained to Danmarks Radio that it is standard practice in such incidents to investigate whether the ship's anchor might have damaged the cables.
- No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged. I also don’t want to believe that the ships’ anchors caused the damage by accident, as stated by Reuters, Boris Pistorius, the German Defence Minister. A similar incident occurred last year when the Chinese container ship NewNew Polar Bear damaged a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland.
