According to the latest news about the Nord Stream cable break from AFP, Stockholm wanted a Chinese ship anchored off the coast of Denmark after two cables in the Baltic Sea were broken and moved to Swedish waters to support the investigation, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson informed on the morning of November 26, local time.
He said that Sweden "has been in contact with the ship and with China and has declared that it wants the ship to move towards Swedish waters".
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stressed that the request for the Chinese ship to enter Swedish waters was not an "accusation" but to "finding out what had happened".
According to Bloomberg, Prime Minister Kristersson said that the Swedish government "has not yet received an answer" to this request.
Mr. Kristersson said: "This is not the first time we have had a cable break with an unknown cause. This is the second such incident in the Baltic Sea in just over a year.
Two telecommunications cables were severed on 17 and 18 November in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea. Early on November 17, the Arelion cable connecting Sweden's Gotland Islands to Lithuania was damaged. The next day, the C-Lion 1 underground cable connecting Helsinki and Germany's Rostock port broke off south of Sweden's Oland island, about 700 km from Helsinki.
The Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 was near the two cables when the incident occurred. According to ship tracking websites, the Yi Peng 3 passed through the cables around the time of the cable breaks, although there is no evidence that the ship was involved in the incidents.
Swedish and Finnish police have opened an investigation and European officials have expressed suspicions of "sabotage" related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the cable break near Nord Stream.
The Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 has been anchored in the Kattegat Strait between Sweden and Denmark, just outside Danish territory since 19 November. The Chinese ship is being closely monitored by ships from Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
The Danish Navy announced on November 20 that it was tracking the ship in international waters. The Swedish Coast Guard has been monitoring the ship since November 23.
Tensions have been rising around the Baltic Sea since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022. In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipeline transporting Russian gas to Europe. The cause and perpetrator of the Nord Stream explosion have not yet been determined.
In October 2023, the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after being damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.
