Damage to Baltic Sea cables: An act of sabotage or just another accident
The West has blamed Moscow and Beijing for everything and anything that happens in European waters, often terming it as hybrid warfare but such claims have often fallen flat.
China has provided information and documents to a joint investigation into two severed Baltic Sea undersea cables, and has invited Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark to participate in the probe, the foreign ministry has said.
Two undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged on November 17 and 18, immediately prompting European officials to claim that it was an act of sabotage.
The pipeline and cable that lie on the bed of the Baltic Sea have been in the spotlight since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
The telecom cables, which connect Lithuania with Sweden and Finland with Germany were damaged around the same time when a Chinese vessel, Yi Peng 3, was reportedly seen in the vicinity.
The willingness of China to cooperate in the probe so far seems to undermine the Western allegations of sabotage.
The Yi Peng 3 remained anchored in the international waters of the Kattegat Strait between Sweden and Denmark from November 19 to December 21.
European officials have also said they suspect sabotage linked to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Kremlin has rejected the comments as "absurd" and "laughable".
The Nord stream
This is not the first time European and American officials have pinned the blame of sabotage on Russia or China.
The West accused Russia of a sabotage attack on Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022. But later it was revealed by the German investigation that the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian team.
Berlin even issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diver believed to be hiding in Poland.
The Wall Street Journal in its investigative report held Ukraine responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022.
It also mentioned that Poland has long maintained that its security interests have been harmed by Nord Stream.
Act of God! Comrade
In August this year, Beijing admitted that a Chinese container ship damaged the Balticconnector — a vital Baltic Sea gas pipeline linking Estonia and Finland.
The South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese government notified Finland and Estonia that it was caused by a Hong Kong-registered ship because of a storm.
However, Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said he was sceptical of China's claim that a storm caused the incident.
Similarly, a DHL cargo plane crash in Vilnius in November was not due to sabotage, the Lithuanian Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas had to clarify after the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock suspected the crash was an act of sabotage.
"A preliminary analysis of the Boeing 737’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, as well as an examination of evidence from the accident scene, “no signs of unauthorised interference were found” Lithuania said.
In April last year, the BBC quoting a Danish official reported that a Russian Admiral Vladimirsky was a ghost ship assigned for underwater surveillance and sabotage but it turned out that the vessel was an expeditionary oceanographic ship.