A Swedish probe found no conclusive evidence to suggest that a Chinese ship had deliberately dragged its anchor to damage two
Baltic Sea cables, Sweden’s Accident Investigation Authority said on Tuesday, thou
gh a separate investigation remains under way.
The Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier has been under investigation for dragging its anchor a
nd breaching two subsea fiber-optic communications cables in Swedish economic
waters, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, on November 17-18 last year.
“It cannot be determined with certainty whether a Chinese ship intentiona
lly damaged data cables in the Baltic Sea,” the government authority, whic
h investigates accidents and incidents, said in a statement.
Read more: Sweden Seizes Ship Suspected of Sabotage in Baltic Sea
Swedish prosecutor Henrik Soderman told Reuters he was still investigating
the case in a separate probe, declining to provide further detail.
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Investigators faced some constraints as Chinese authorities maintaine
d jurisdiction over the vessel, prohibiting criminal investigations and recording of interviews aboard, it said.
China in December said it had provided information and documents for the investi
gation into the severing of the cables, while its ally Russia has so far denied invol
vement in any of the Baltic infrastructure incidents.
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link
and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the NATO military a
lliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Stine Jacobsen, William Maclean)
