The Chinese ship suspected of sabotaging submarine cables has been roaming in international waters for days, right next to Danish territory.
According to map data, Yi Peng 3 moves even only a hundred meters away from Danish territorial waters.
The exact location is very important to whether the Danish authorities can board the ship and search it.
– If the ship were inside Denmark’s territorial waters, then Denmark’s jurisdiction applies, says the maritime science professor Kristina Siig For the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
According to the Marinetraffic service, which follows the movements of ships, Danish, German and Swedish official vessels are patrolling near the Chinese ship.
A patrol vessel of the Danish Navy is anchored very close by and has been following it since the beginning.
Danish Defense Forces has not confirmed location information of the ship or whether its personnel have visited a Chinese ship.
The German authorities have monitored the Yi Peng 3 vessel with at least two official ships. Initially, the Coast Guard vessel Bad Düben was nearby from Friday to Monday. Bad Düben left the area on Monday at the same time as the German Federal Police patrol boat Bad Bramstedt arrived.
Bad Bramstedt is now at anchor near the Yi Peng 3 vessel.
In addition, a Swedish Coast Guard vessel has been on duty since Saturday.
The Danish authorities will likely have difficulty finding legal grounds to board the ship, search it and detain the ship, says a maritime law expert Alexander Lott.
According to him, the Danes should act more courageously, even though the legal situation is complicated
– I think law enforcement actions against the Chinese vessel are possible, Lott says to in a video interview.
Estonian Lott works at the maritime law research center in Tromssa, Norway. He states that the Danish authorities have so far interpreted maritime law cautiously.
According to him, several laws and agreements can allow boarding a ship when the ship is suspected of damaging undersea cables.
In Lotti’s opinion, the most important thing would be to avoid a situation where the Chinese ship would be allowed to continue its journey. This is what happened a year ago, when another Chinese cargo ship damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline.
Lott hopes that Denmark will stop the Chinese ship if it tries to leave the area.
– It would be advisable for Denmark to take actions that Finland and Estonia did not take in connection with the Balticconnector case, he says.
According to Lotti, international maritime law currently does not provide sufficient protection for undersea cables.
Denmark’s boarding of the Yi Peng 3 could lead to the creation of a precedent when the matter would possibly be dealt with in court. That way, the countries of the Baltic Sea would get clarity on how to act when it comes to suspected hybrid warfare against underwater infrastructure, he estimates
– Hybrid actors can use the loopholes in the law to their advantage.
Negotiations with China are ongoing
When the vessel is located in the Danish economic zone, the authorities can only intervene in crimes related to environmental protection, clarifies the Professori Kristiina Siig from the University of Southern Denmark.
According to Siig, getting on the ship and examining it requires a permit from the country under whose flag the ship sails. In this case, permission would have to be obtained from China.
– The ship is basically seen as a small piece of China, Siig says to the Danish public broadcasting company.
According to the information received by the Danish and Swedish public broadcasting companies, several countries are currently holding diplomatic negotiations with China on ways to resolve the stalemate.
According to the Danish public broadcasting company DR, the negotiations have been held since last week “in a good spirit”. In the negotiations, the aim is to get approval from China for exploring the ship.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that it does not know that the Chinese ship is in any way connected to the damage to the submarine cables.
The story was updated on 26.11. 2024 The story has been updated with the latest information about the official ships operating near the Chinese ship.