Swedish authorities are investigating damage to two communication cables in the Baltic Sea and whether the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 may have been involved, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 20, citing undisclosed sources.
Data from maritime tracking group MarineTraffic shows the Yi Peng 3, traveling from Russia to Egypt, passed near the Swedish-Lithuanian and Finnish-German cables on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18, the dates the cables were damaged.
The Swedish government has declined to publicly comment specifically on the ship but confirmed that a police investigation, supported by the Coast Guard and the Armed Forces, is underway.
The Yi Peng 3 is owned by the Ningbo Yipeng Shipping company based near Ningbo in eastern China. A company spokesperson confirmed to the Financial Times that the Chinese government had asked the company to cooperate with the investigation but declined to provide further details.
Telecom cables linking two Nordic countries with Germany and Lithuania were cut at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, raising suspicion of sabotage, various media outlets reported on Nov. 18.
This incident comes a little more than two years after unknown actors blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, as well as amid mounting warnings of Russian hybrid and sabotage operations across Western countries, namely in the Baltic Sea region.
China is Russia’s leading geopolitical partner, and NATO countries have accused Beijing of directly supporting Moscow’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Chris York