The laying of C-Lion 1, a data cable connecting Helsinki, Finland, and Rostock, Germany, began at the Santahamina Garrison in Helsinki in October 2015. Cinia, the Finnish network and cybersecurity company that owns the cable, on Monday reported that it has detected a fault in the cable about 700 kilometres south-west of Helsinki, near the southern tip of Öland in Sweden. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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PRIME MINISTER Petteri Orpo (NCP) on Tuesday urged people not to jump to conclusions about the damage caused to C-Lion 1, a 1,173-kilometre undersea data cable connecting Helsinki, Finland, and Rostock, Germany.
“I’m sure the sequence of events at the [sea] bottom will be clarified quickly, [and we’ll learn] what kind of damage we’re talking about. It’s premature to say whether it was sabotage,” he was quoted saying by Helsingin Sanomat.
Orpo commented on the issue in the wake of a statement citing Article 4 of Nato by Jukka Kopra (NCP), the chairperson of the Parliament’s Defence Committee. The article enables any member state to invoke a process of consultation if it believes the security, political independence or territorial integrity of a member has been threatened.
“This isn’t the time for that,” stated Orpo. “I don’t think we’re talking at this point about something where we’d need Nato articles.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (NCP), in turn, reminded that the defence alliance has outlined that also a hybrid attack could trigger the mutual defence clause of the North Atlantic Treaty.
“It isn’t that only a military attack is taken seriously. We take all of these seriously,” she was quoted saying by the newspaper. “If a deliberate act is behind this, it constitutes an attack against democratic and free society.”
What is clear is that the data cable was damaged by an outside force, according to Ari-Jussi Knaapila, the CEO of Cinia. The Helsinki-based connectivity, cybersecurity and software provider has revealed that it detected a fault in the cable east of the southern tip of Öland in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone after 4am on Monday.
“In these waters, something like this won’t happen without an external impact. There isn’t the kind of seismic activity or submarine landslides that could cause this,” Knaapila remarked at a press conference on Monday.
He also confirmed that the possibility of sabotage has yet been ruled out.
Less than a day earlier, damage had been detected in a submarine cable running across the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Lithuania.
The National Bureau of Investigation (KRP and Swedish law enforcement authorities have set up a joint task force to investigate the incidents, Timo Kilpeläinen, a deputy director of KRP, revealed on Tuesday. While KRP refrained from specifying the suspected offence, Swedish authorities have communicated that the incidents are investigated as sabotage.
German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius on Tuesday emphasised that lawmakers should not hesitate to speak about sabotage, striking a markedly different tone than Orpo.
“No one thinks that these cables could break off by themselves. I also don’t want to believe in versions that suggest the damage was caused accidentally by an anchor,” he was quoted saying by Helsingin Sanomat in Brussels on Tuesday. “That’s why we have to acknowledge, without knowing the exact cause, that we’re dealing with ‘hybrid activity’. And we have to assume, without knowing it for sure, that we’re dealing with sabotage.”
Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday wrote that Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier vessel, was sailing near the site of both incidents shortly before the cable faults were detected. The vessel is presently in the territorial waters of Denmark, tracked by a number of Danish coast guard and military vessels, according to the Danish news outlet BT.
Cinia on Tuesday communicated that it has begun preparatory work to repair the damaged cable. A vessel, it revealed, is scheduled to set sail from Calais, France, on Thursday, while work on the cable is scheduled to start next Monday or Tuesday.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
