(Dan Tri) – Latvia’s President warned that if Russia is behind the damage to the Finland-Estonia gas pipeline, NATO will seriously consider closing the Baltic Sea to Russian ships.
A Russian warship in the Black Sea (Illustration: TASS).
`I want to say that if we see these types of incidents, as far as I know, NATO just needs to close the Baltic Sea to ships. This can be done,` Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in a meeting.
The office of the President of Latvia later clarified that Mr. Rinkevics was specifically referring to Russian maritime shipping activities, not all maritime traffic activities.
President Rinkevics noted that this has not been discussed within NATO, because the investigation into the Finland-Estonia gas pipeline incident is still ongoing, but a naval blockade is one of the options.
`Of course, it is also an issue related to a series of international maritime laws,` Mr. Rinkevics said.
Balticconnector, an undersea gas pipeline connecting a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Finland with Estonia, stopped operating on October 8 due to a sudden loss of pressure.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has accused an `external` actor of being involved in the sabotage of the pipeline as well as two nearby data cables.
Police will attempt to recover the object from the seabed to investigate whether it is related to the damaged pipeline.
Natural gas accounts for about 5% of Finland’s energy consumption, mainly used in industry and combined heat and power generation.
NATO responded by deploying minesweepers and patrol aircraft to the Baltic region to `protect undersea infrastructure`.
Location of the Baltic Sea (Photo: Financial Times).
Closing the Baltic Sea to Russian ships essentially means a blockade of Russia’s second largest commercial port, St.
Meanwhile, investigators from Sweden, Denmark and Germany are still trying to find the culprit behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosion in September 2022.
In February, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published a shocking article, accusing the US and Norwegian governments of blowing up Nord Stream.
Immediately afterward, some American media agencies said that a group of Ukrainians may be involved in this incident.
