Finnish President Alexander Stubb will host a summit in Helsinki of the NATO countries that border the Baltic Sea together with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal next Tuesday.
The summit, which will take place at the Presidential Palace, will be attended by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as well as leaders from Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
The topic will be the security of the Baltic Sea region, especially measures required to secure the critical underwater infrastructure, the Finnish presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The discussion will focus on strengthening NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to the threat posed by Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ships.
The summit is a response to a series of incidents in which pipelines and cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged by vessels allegedly linked to Russia.
On Christmas Day, damage was discovered on the Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia, as well as on four communication cables, including a connection between Helsinki and Rostock that had already been severed in a previous incident in November.
The oil tanker Eagle S is suspected of having deliberately caused the damage on Christmas Day.
The ship was flying the flag of the Cook Islands, but according to the EU it belongs to the Russian shadow fleet.
This refers to tankers and other cargo ships that Russia uses to circumvent sanctions imposed as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, for example when transporting oil.
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