Cable Sabotage In The Baltic

Two subsea cables, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden and Lithuania were damaged in less than 24 hours on November 17th and 18th prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to say - he assumed it was sabotage. The suspected culprit is a Chinese registered bulk carrier - the Yi Peng 3 - which was traveling through the area after departing the Russian port of Ust Luga west of St Petersburg on November 15th. Reuters news agency have quoted Western Intelligence officials from multiple countries as saying that they are confident the Chinese ship caused the cuts to both cables but, they have expressed different views on whether these were accidents or could have been deliberate. This is not the first time a Chinese vessel has been suspected of damaging subsea infrastructure in this region and it raises concerns of a wider pattern of hybrid warfare. My guest in this episode is Eoin McNamara who is a Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. I spoke to him about recent events, the reactions in the region and the implications for countries like Ireland and the broader EU. #Baltic, #YiPeng3, #Cablesabotage, #China, #Russia, #EU