Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday that the alliance is launching a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region.
He said at a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with the leaders of eight Nato countries located on the Baltic Sea that the effort will be dubbed Baltic Sentry.
“It will involve a range of assets, including frigates and maritime patrol aircraft, among others, and will enhance our vigilance in the Baltic,” Mr Rutte told reporters.
He also said a small fleet of naval drones will be deployed “to provide enhanced surveillance and deterrence”.
The Nato talks followed a string of incidents in the Baltic Sea region that have heightened concerns about possible Russian activities (Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AP)
The talks followed a string of incidents in the Baltic that have heightened concerns about possible Russian activities in the region.
As the meeting was taking place in Helsinki, there were reports on Polish state broadcaster TVP that a ship belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” was seen circling a natural gas pipeline that runs from Norway to Poland.
Finland President Alexander Stubb said the issue had been discussed at the meeting, which also included leaders from Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, but did not give details.
Announcing the new operation, Mr Rutte noted that more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, and 808,000 miles (1.3m km) of cables guarantee an estimated 10 trillion US dollars (£8.2 trillion) worth of financial transactions every day.
“Across the alliance, we have seen elements of a campaign to destabilise our societies through cyber attacks, assassination attempts and sabotage, including possible sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, front left, and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, front right, talk during a summit of the Baltic Sea Nato countries in Helsinki, Finland (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/AP)
He added that Nato’s adversaries must know the alliance will not accept attacks on its critical infrastructure, saying: “We will do everything in our power to make sure that we fight back, that we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
Pressed for details about what the operation might involve, Mr Rutte declined to provide ship numbers, saying the figure could vary from week to week, and “we don’t want to make the enemy any wiser than he or she is already”.
“We will make use of the full range of possibilities we as an alliance have,” he said, including “remotely operated vehicles” and drones.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in separate remarks to reporters that Germany will participate in the Baltic Sentry mission.
Asked whether that means Germany will contribute ships or surveillance planes and whether he made a specific offer, he replied: “We will participate with everything we have in the way of naval capabilities; that will vary as far as the concrete possibilities of deployment are concerned.”