NATO to boost Baltic Sea presence after cables broken
www.reuters.com

... NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage this week of an undersea power cable and four internet cables, while alliance member Estonia launched a naval operation to guard a parallel electricity link.

Finland on Thursday seized a ship carrying Russian oil on suspicion of causing an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable linking it with Estonia, and of disrupting fibre optic lines. On Friday it said it had asked the transatlantic military alliance for support.

Baltic nations are on alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

"We have agreed with Estonia, and we have also communicated to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, that our wish is to have a stronger NATO presence," Finnish President Alexander Stubb told a news conference.

Rutte posted on the social media platform X that "NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea", without elaborating. A NATO official declined to provide further detail.

Sweden's coastguard said it had increased surveillance of ship traffic, deploying aircraft and vessels and coordinating with other nations. ...