Sweden asks China to cooperate in Baltic Sea cable investigation

CNN —

Sweden has sent a formal request to China to cooperate with an investigation into suspected sabotage over the sudden disruption of two submarine internet cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month, after tracking data linked a Chinese ship to the incidents.

“Sweden has sent a formal request to China to cooperate with Swedish authorities in order to create clarity on what has happened,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters on Thursday.

Kristersson also said that Sweden has asked for the Chinese ship to return to Swedish waters in order to aid its investigation. The vessel is currently anchored in international waters in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden.

The two cables – one named Arelion, which links Finland and Germany, and the other named C-Lion 1 connecting Sweden to Lithuania – were severedwithin 24 hours of each other on November 17 and 18.

The incidents came just weeks after the United States warned that Moscow was likely to target critical undersea infrastructure. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the time that “no one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged.”

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said last Tuesday that the country’s National Unit against International and Organized Crime had opened a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage over the cut cables. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation also said it had launched an investigation.

The C-Lion1 submarine telecommunications cable being laid to the bottom of the Baltic Sea in this file image from October 2015.

Vessel tracking data from Kpler showed that a Chinese bulk carrier had crossed the two undersea communications cables around the time that each was reported cut.

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