“Protect Critical Networks.” Finnish Defense Minister Andi Hakanen warned on Tuesday that NATO and the European Union must raise the security “bar” significantly to protect against hybrid threats and defend undersea cables from attack.

“NATO and [η] The EU must do much more to protect this vital infrastructure,” Hakanen stressed to Politico after the EU Foreign Affairs Council (a meeting of defense ministers) in Brussels, adding that the issue was discussed during the meeting.

As Politico comments, Hakanen’s remarks follow Finnish network company Cinia’s announcement on Monday that it is investigating damage to a 1,172-kilometer undersea fiber optic cable connecting an area near Helsinki to Rostock. The incident sparked political concern in both Berlin and Helsinki.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday described the damage as “sabotage”.

“We know that Russia has [την] the ability and the willingness to sabotage Europe,” observed Hakanen for his part.

“And of course, we’re investigating [αυτού του είδους] the damages and also having some idea, that there is [υπάρχει εκεί] sabotage. Because it’s really unlikely to be an accident.”

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom warned in a joint statement on Tuesday of Moscow’s “escalating hybrid activities” against NATO and EU countries, calling them unprecedented in scale. and potential impact.

“Suspicious” a Chinese ship

However, Swedish news agency SVT on Tuesday night reported the existence of satellite images that showed a Chinese ship was in the area when the cables were damaged. According to SVT, Danish navy vessels spotted the Chinese vessel in the Baltic Sea.

This is the second time in a year that Baltic Sea infrastructure – which includes communications cables and energy pipelines such as Nord Stream – has been damaged, raising concerns about security and sabotage.

Another telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland was damaged on Sunday morning, telecommunications company Telia Lietuva, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Telia, said on Monday.

In October last year, the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged. A telecommunications cable connecting Estonia to Sweden was also damaged the same night, along with one of Russia’s telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland. Since then, investigations have focused on a Chinese vessel, the Newnew Polar Bear, which was in the area during one of the incidents.

Hakanen called such attacks on critical infrastructure in international waters “something new,” and admitted they are difficult to prevent.

“These submarine cables are probably the most difficult parts of our societies to protect when they are under international waters, on the seabed. That’s why it’s so difficult for Western countries,” he noted.