21 November 2024
(Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkänen. Photo: mil.in.ua)
Finland's defense minister said that "Russia has the ability and willingness to carry out sabotage in Europe," Politico reports.
Antti Hakkänen said that NATO and the European Union must step up their game to protect themselves from hybrid threats and protect undersea cables from attack.
"NATO and the EU need to do much more to protect this critical infrastructure," Hakkänen told Politico after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, adding that the topic was discussed during the meeting.
Hakkänen's remarks came after Finnish networking company Cinia announced that it was investigating damage to an undersea internet cable connecting Santahamina, near Helsinki, to Rostock, Germany. The incident caused political concern in both Berlin and Helsinki.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday called the damage a "sabotage".
"And, of course, we are investigating the damage also from the point of view that there is sabotage. Because it is unlikely to be a natural accident."
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom warned in a joint statement on Tuesday of "Moscow's escalating hybrid actions" against NATO and EU countries, calling them unprecedented in scale and potential impact.
However, the Swedish media outlet SVT reported on Tuesday evening that satellite images existed showing that a Chinese ship was nearby when the cables were damaged.
On November 19, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom confirmed that they would continue to take steps to deter Russian aggression, including through further support for Ukraine.
"Russia is systematically attacking the European security architecture. Russia's reckless revisionism and persistent refusal to stop its aggression and engage in constructive negotiations is a challenge to peace, freedom and prosperity on the European continent and in the transatlantic region," the ministers said.
They noted that Russia is increasingly relying on the help of its partners, Iran and North Korea, to continue its illegal war.
"To meet this historic challenge, we are determined to join forces with our European and transatlantic partners to think and act big in the interests of European security," the diplomats said.
In this regard, the countries reaffirmed that they will continue to take steps to deter Russian aggression, strengthen NATO as the foundation of European security, increase security and defense spending and investment in building up the military-industrial base, increase resilience to hybrid threats, and strengthen military, economic and financial support for Ukraine, including support for a $50 billion G7 loan.
The ministers emphasized that "peace negotiations can only be conducted with Ukraine, with European, American and G7 partners on its side."
Ігор Льов