NATO ships surrounded a Chinese ship on Friday, after the Chinese ship was suspected of sabotaging an underwater internet cable that connects Finland and Sweden to Central Europe. The Chinese vessel was traveling from Russia to Egypt and was carrying fertilizer.
The Chinese bulk carrier reportedly dropped its anchor in Swedish waters with the intent of dragging it across and severing the BCS east-west underwater Interlink cable. According to reports, the very next day the vessel once again dragged its anchor across the C-Lion1 cable between Finland and Germany.
The totality of the anchor dragging is suspected to be over 100 miles. Investigators claim that it would be incredibly unlikely that the Captain of the ship would not have noticed that they were dragging an anchor for such a long duration. Especially, when the anchor dragging happened to have damaged two vital pieces of underwater infrastructure.
The ship, “Yi Peng 3” was surrounded by NATO vessels and an investigation into the matter was kicked off. Sweden has communicated with the ship’s owner to negotiate that it be docked in Sweden for further investigation. NATO authorities however, cannot force the vessel to any port because it was stopped in international waters.
According to reports, experts believe that despite the Yi Peng 3 being a Chinese vessel, that Russian involvement is likely, while Chinese involvement is not suspected. The Kremlin claims that such accusations are “absurd” and “unsubstantiated.”
