Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said there was a “fairly high” possibility that two undersea fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea may have been cut deliberately. He also advocated joint maritime patrols, Reuters and Lrt.lt reported.
“There is a fair high probability that the recent damage to cables in the Baltic Sea is malicious activity,” – he said at a press conference on December 6, noting that there is currently no evidence.
According to Nauseda, it is quite obvious that hybrid attacks, particularly in the Baltic Sea, will only intensify in the coming years.
The leaders of Latvia Edgars Rinkėvičs and Estonia Alar Karisk were also present at the conference. All three agree that joint maritime patrols should be considered after the incident.
According to Nauseda, actions should be taken not only at the NATO level, but also at the level of the countries in the Baltic Sea region: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Sweden and Finland.
“These joint patrols will demonstrate that we take our actions and responsibilities very seriously and are able to protect our critical infrastructure. Because this is the critical infrastructure of NATO countries,” Nauseda said.
Rinkėvis added that details need to be worked out before implementing this idea, as resources and ships are needed.