NATO manager praises Sweden after cable break

Baltic Sentry is NATO’s response to the recent cable break in the Baltic Sea.

So far, no Member State has been able to prove sabotage, but that does not change the defense alliance’s need for sea surveillance, says NATO chief Arjen Warnar.

– It is very difficult to believe that all incidents are accidents, he tells TT.

After several suspected cable sabotage, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had enough and launched Baltic Sentry, an operation aimed at protecting critical infrastructure on the seabed.

On Tuesday, HMS Carlskrona threw out from the naval port in Karlskrona to participate in the operation, and thus became the second Swedish ship ever to sail under the NATO flag.

– My main task will be to contribute a good situation, but also to be deterrent in the areas I am assigned. The purpose is to be in place and react faster, says Swedish warship Thomas Zimmerman.

Monitors from space

Up on the deck stands crewmen with binoculars and scout out over the Baltic Sea. It contributes to NATO’s situation in the area, says Arjen Warnarar, head of one of NATO’s standing ship forces which includes HMS Carlskrona.

– We have not only sensor systems for monitoring on vessels out at sea but also underwater and from space. If the systems are sufficiently linked to an optimal information gathering, he asks rhetorically and answers:

– Not yet. Sweden has not been a member of the Alliance for a long time, but I can guarantee one thing, and that is that we will improve it.

Praces Sweden’s actions

But there are successes.

“The best example is probably the discovery of Vezhen, which only took a few minutes,” says Arjen Warnar, with reference to the vessel that Swedish authorities seized after a cable break between Sweden and Finland at the end of January.

He believes that it was right of Swedish authorities to act when the suspicion of gross sabotage arose, even though a prosecutor later dismissed the suspicion and stated that it was an accident.

Find smoking gun

In two other cases, prosecutor -led preliminary investigations are still underway on rough sabotage, one in Sweden and one in Finland.

– I have been at sea for many years and never met a captain who thinks that you are lagging an anchor by the sea floor by mistake, says Arjen Warnarar, who also does not think it is a coincidence that both vessels sailed from the Russian port.

– Of course, the best thing would have been if we could find the smoking gun and bring someone to justice. On the side of NATO we are worried.