Poland’s PM Proposes Navy Policing in Baltic Sea Amid Russia Threat

(Bloomberg) —

Poland will propose a maritime policing program in the Baltic Sea similar to air-monitoring missions carried out by NATO members, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.

Tusk called the plan “a joint venture of countries located at the Baltic Sea, which have the same sense of threat posed by Russia” in comments in Warsaw. He is due to travel to Sweden for a meeting of Baltic and Nordic leaders. 

The Polish prime minister’s proposal comes as the undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea was damaged for the second time in about a year. The anchor of a Hong Kong-flagged ship tore up at least two data cables and a gas pipeline in October 2023, prompting NATO to step up patrols in the Baltic Sea.

In the most recent incident earlier this month, a high-speed fiber optic cable in the Baltic Sea connecting Finland and Germany was severed by what was likely an external impact and a nearby link between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged.

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This time another Chinese ship, the bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, was in the vicinity of the two cables when they were damaged. Finnish and Swedish police are investigating the damage, which they suspect is deliberate, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called for a probe into potential sabotage.

The European Union is also working on a package of sanctions targeting the shadow fleet of tankers Russia uses to get its oil onto global markets. Those profits fuel Vladimir Putin’s war machine, and the US, the UK and the EU have made cutting them a priority.

Security in the Baltic region will be a key topic at a summit in the Swedish town of Harpsund, where leaders from Poland, Nordic and Baltic States will discuss Europe’s continued support for Ukraine and transatlantic relations in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection as US president.

Trump has promised a swift resolution of the war in Ukraine, raising concerns that US will scale down its support for Kyiv. That could leave Europe to bear the brunt of providing continued military aid for the war-torn country.

“There can be no room for thinking that if America were to withdraw its aid for Ukraine, then Europe should do the same,” Tusk said. Europe “has to stand up on its own feet and there must come an end to the era of fear and uncertainty about Russia.”

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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