EDITORIAL ⟩ Order in the Baltic Sea!

Photo: Urmas Nemvalts.

• NATO countries in the Baltic Sea region must make more of an effort.
• Hybrid warfare must not be allowed to be waged freely in the Baltic Sea.
• A patrol mission is a good initiative.

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he wants to launch a patrol mission in cooperation with Baltic Sea countries to protect the region from Russian hybrid attacks. This is an important initiative, and while it alone is not enough to protect underwater infrastructure, any cooperation between NATO countries to secure submarine cables and pipelines is welcome.

​That the problem is not merely theoretical is shown by the damage done to the Balticconnector gas pipeline by the container ship Newnew Polar Bear last October, or the damage done to the submarine cable between Finland and Germany and the submarine cable between Sweden and Lithuania by the anchor of the cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which was allegedly dragged along the seabed for hundreds of kilometers. We should not be misled by the fact that both times it was a Chinese ship. The political and also military cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation is a well-known fact.

According to naval sources, dealing with the problem is complicated by the fact that the sea cannot be crowded with patrol ships, which currently makes it almost impossible to prevent the destruction of underwater infrastructure. Secondly, although good monitoring capabilities allow for the rapid identification of the vessel that caused the failure, international maritime law makes it difficult to stop and search these vessels. The Yi Peng 3 is currently anchored just outside the Danish straits and is being monitored by the navies of Denmark and several other countries. The Danes have promised to board the vessel if it enters Danish waters, and risk being taken to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea by China.

Postimees believes that it is necessary to respond decisively to the destruction of international maritime infrastructure. We agree with Harri Tiido's position, expressed in the latest “Välistund” program of ERR, that NATO must consider the violation of maritime infrastructure a military act. This means that the guilty ships can be detained by force, searched and, if necessary, seized. The corresponding action plan is made public, and this would also give real force to the patrol mission planned by Donald Tusk.

In such cases, it is inappropriate to hide behind international freedom of navigation, as authoritarian states like to do. Let us recall that global freedom of navigation has flourished following World War II and has been ensured by US fleets sailing the world's oceans. This is not a freedom designed to carry out atrocities and hybrid operations.

Postimees believes that it is necessary to respond decisively to the destruction of international maritime infrastructure. The guilty ships must be detained by force, searched and, if necessary, seized.

So, we have every right to demand order in the Baltic Sea, which has become NATO's internal sea. Incidentally, NATO's technical capabilities for this are rapidly improving. We have written about the United Kingdom's new unmanned submarine, which engineers created in just eleven months and the purpose of which is namely to monitor and protect underwater infrastructure.

The most important thing right now is to unite the political will and economic and military capabilities of the countries around the Baltic Sea. We are able to protect our infrastructure, and Poland's initiative comes at a very opportune time.