Baltic Sea Cable Cuts Again, Finnish Government Launches Serious Investigation | WPN World People News

In mid-November, an undersea communication cable connecting Finland and Germany across the Baltic Sea was reportedly damaged. Recently (on December 3), it was revealed that two breaks had occurred in the land-based fiber optic cable between Sweden and Finland, causing severe network outages in Finland. This marks the second cable-cutting incident within 20 days, prompting investigations by Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications and the police.

The undersea cable damage in mid-November has heightened vigilance among Baltic Sea nations regarding cable disruptions. Swedish authorities suspect that the damage may have been intentional. Telecom operators suggest that one of the break points might have been caused by regular construction digging. While Sweden was not directly affected by the cable damage, Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stated that the Swedish government takes this event seriously and will continue to monitor its developments.

On November 17 and 18, two undersea fiber optic communication cables connecting Sweden with Lithuania and Finland with Germany were reportedly severed by the Chinese cargo ship "Yipeng No. 3." According to local digital infrastructure and data communication provider "GlobalConnect," on December 2, the land-based data cable linking Sweden and Finland was also damaged at two different locations in southern Finland, affecting up to 6,000 individual users and 100 business users. The Finnish government has expressed that it is taking the matter "seriously," though it has not yet moved towards a criminal investigation.

In response to the November mid-month undersea cable damage, with support from the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (EUROJUST), Finnish authorities are working alongside Sweden, Germany, and Lithuania to investigate. Germany has indicated that the damage seems to have been caused by "sabotage," although no evidence has been found yet. Last week, Sweden formally requested China’s cooperation in clarifying the situation.

The Baltic Sea is one of the most important shipping routes for global merchant vessels, accounting for 15% of the world's shipping traffic. The countries along the Baltic coast include Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany, with the exception of Russia. All eight countries are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To strengthen protection of their internal infrastructure, a 12-day military exercise called "Cold Wind" was launched on November 18, involving 30 NATO warships and 4,000 military personnel. The scale of the exercise was exceptionally large.

Experts from the UK and the US have pointed out that due to the high density of ship traffic in the Baltic Sea, its shallow sea telecommunication cables, power lines, and natural gas pipelines are particularly vulnerable to damage. Cable disruptions are not uncommon. However, if these disruptions are confirmed to be state-sponsored sabotage, it could be a return to tactics last seen during World War I or the 1898 Spanish-American War.