China Ignores Estonia's 6-month Old Plea For Cooperation In Subsea Cable Investigation

Subsea Vessel — Image for representation purposes only

Estonia’s state prosecutor recently reported that China has yet to respond to a six-month-old request for assistance regarding an investigation of a Chinese ship that Estonia suspects cut two of its subsea cables.

The two cables linking Estonia with Sweden and Finland were impaired between October 7 and 8, and an Estonia-Finland gas pipeline was damaged in what Finnish investigators strongly believe may have been sabotage.

This harms energy security and raises alarm bells in the broader region.

Estonia, which has been investigating the cable damage, and Finland, which is investigating the Balticconnector gas pipeline, have identified the Hong Kong-registered container vessel dubbed the NewNew Polar Bear as the key suspect.

Triinu Olev, the Estonian state prosecutor, mentioned that the Chinese authorities have yet to respond by executing the legal aid request.

She added that more evidence needs to be collected to determine whether the damage was intentional or accidental.

The Chinese foreign ministry reported that the Chinese authorities were investigating and tackling the cases.

The ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, mentioned at a news briefing on Wednesday that they will study requests for judicial support in accordance with domestic laws and relevant treaties.

Olev’s spokesperson informed Reuters in December that the request had been sent out on November 10, whereas the Finnish investigation sent out a separate request for legal support to China.

Reuters has reported that the Chinese vessel was spotted at all three sites around the time of damage, sailing on its way to a port close to St Petersburg in Russia, per data from a reputed ship-tracking and maritime analytics provider, MarineTraffic.

A large anchor, which was understood to belong to China’s vessel, was discovered close to the pipeline, and investigators informed that the pipe and telecoms cables were most likely broken as the anchor was being dragged across the sea bed.

The National Bureau of Investigation of Finland told Reuters last month that it had cooperated with China’s authorities in solving the pipeline damage and that there had been notable progress in the ongoing probe.

Russia has dismissed the idea of its involvement as “rubbish”.

NewNew Polar Bear was anchored at the Tianjin port in China since it came back from Russia in December 2023, per MarineTraffic’s data.

NATO has strengthened its patrols aligned with the Baltic Sea in 2023 following the incidents, and Norway’s Navy shadowed the NewNew Polar Bear as it was sailing over the country’s most important gas pipelines.

Reference: Reuters

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