Reuters-Finland contacts China Russia regarding Baltic Sea pipeline investigation
October 20, 2023 2 min 305 words
芬兰外交部在调查波罗的海管道损坏事件中积极采取外交行动，与中国和俄罗斯保持联系。这一行动引起了人们对波罗的海地区能源供应安全的担忧，甚至导致北约军事联盟加强对波罗的海的巡逻。10月8日，芬兰和爱沙尼亚之间的天然气管道和电信电缆遭到损坏，初步调查表明可能是故意破坏。芬兰外交部已经与中国联系，寻求与调查中涉及的NewNew Polar Bear船只取得联系。与此同时，芬兰还与俄罗斯联系，表明了问题的严重性，并宣布已经展开了调查。波罗的海地区还发生了与电信电缆有关的故障，瑞典和爱沙尼亚当局表示可能也受到了外部干扰。这一系列事件引起了国际社会的广泛关注。调查还没有确定损坏波罗的海连接器管道和两条电信电缆的具体原因。芬兰国家调查局正在对涉及的船只展开调查，其中包括NewNew Polar Bear和俄罗斯的Sevmorput。这一事件引发了国际关切，强调了地区能源安全的脆弱性。值得密切关注这一调查的进展，因为它可能对国际政治和地缘战略产生深远影响。
Finland's foreign ministry said on Friday it had contacted China and Russia via diplomatic channels regarding the investigation of damage to a pipeline and a telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea.
Early on Oct. 8, a gas pipeline and a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators say may have been deliberate sabotage.
The Finnish foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters on Friday, said it had contacted China to seek help to get in touch with the NewNew Polar Bear vessel, a ship named as a subject of investigation by Finnish police.
Regarding Russia, Finland contacted the Russian foreign ministry "stating the seriousness of the matter" and that an investigation had been launched.
A second telecoms cable, linking Sweden and Estonia, suffered a partial outage at around the same time, which may also have been caused by outside influence, Swedish and Estonian authorities have said.
Investigators have not said how the damage to the Balticconnector pipeline and the two telecoms cables may have occurred.
The incidents have stoked concerns about the security of energy supplies in the wider Nordic region and prompted the NATO military alliance to ramp up patrols in the Baltic Sea.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, which is in charge of the pipeline investigation, is probing several ships, it said on Oct. 17.
Investigators named the NewNew Polar Bear, which is a Chinese container ship travelling between China and Europe via the Arctic, and the Sevmorput, a Russian nuclear-powered cargo vessel transiting between Murmansk and St. Petersburg.
NewNew Shipping, the owner and operator of the NewNew Polar Bear, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The Russian authority responsible for nuclear-powered vessels, Atomflot, has previously denied that one of its ships had been involved in the incidents. It declined to give further comment on Friday.