Tallinn, Dec 27 The Estonian government convened an emergency meeting after the Estlink-2 power cable connecting Estonia and Finland along the floor of the Gulf of Finland was damaged the previous day.
At a press conference following the meeting on Thursday, Estonian officials agreed with the Finnish authorities' suspicion that the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S "intentionally" struck the offshore cable, Xinhua news agency reported.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said Finnish authorities have brought the Eagle S to port for further examination. Supporting the Finns' investigation, he said, "The ship's crew must be prepared to stay in the country's waters for as long as the situation requires."
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to increase its maritime presence in the region as a "deterrent fleet," adding that Finland's investigation would reveal more details.
In response to whether Estonia would consider invoking NATO's Article 4, Michal said he intended to discuss the matter with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the press conference.
Article 4 stipulates that member states will consult whenever a member believes its territorial integrity, political independence, or security is under threat.
Michal said the Estonian navy, together with allies, will increase patrols around critical infrastructure.
He highlighted the cooperative deployment of ships to monitor undersea infrastructure, urging for greater cooperation to expedite infrastructure improvements.
At a separate press conference on Thursday afternoon, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo noted that he had contacted Baltic Sea allies and that President Alexander Stubb had reached out to NATO.
“This underlies the danger of the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea,” Mr. Orpo said at a news conference in Finland’s capital, Helsinki.
“Our main task is to find effective means to stop the shadow fleet,” Mr. Orpo added. “The shadow fleet pumps money into Russia’s war fund so that Russia can continue to wage its war in Ukraine against the people of Ukraine, and it has to be stopped.”
He said the Finnish government had not been in touch with Russia. After its seizure, the Eagle S was anchored in Finnish waters, as the Finnish authorities investigated, working with the Estonian authorities.
The 145-km EstLink 2 cable, running beneath the Gulf of Finland, connects the energy grids of Estonia and Finland. Transmission operators Elering and Fingrid reported the outage on December 25.
--IANS
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