When American allies' undersea cables are severed, suspicion falls on Russia and China (Excerpts)
Damage to cables from Taiwan to the Baltic Sea has put communications at risk. It’s unclear who is responsible or whether the disruptions are intentional.
First the Baltics, now
Taiwan. This month, in the latest in a spate of such incidents,
crucial undersea cables connecting U.S. allies were damaged or severed.
Some have been cast as acts of sabotage, pinning blame on Russia and
China amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
Early this month, Taiwan’s coast guard
said it had intercepted the Xing Shun 39 — a Hong Kong-owned freighter carrying the Cameroonian and Tanzanian flags — after Taiwan’s biggest telecom company, Chunghwa Telecom, alerted authorities that an international undersea cable had been damaged on Jan. 3.
A “preliminary assessment” suggested the damage might have been caused by the freighter, which “transited the area at the time of the incident,” the coast guard said.
It also comes amid an uproar in Europe, where NATO is stepping up patrols of Baltic Sea cables that provide power and enable almost all intercontinental communication, including the internet.
In Helsinki on Tuesday, members of the defense bloc with access to the Baltic Sea agreed at a summit on regional security threats — including Russian cable sabotage — to deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure.
NATO members said they reserved the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat as part of a broader action, dubbed “Baltic Sentry,” in response to
a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, “if enough cables were cut you can potentially cause something as severe as an internet blackout,” said Ian Li Huiyuan, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Especially for Taiwan’s case, since it’s an island and there’s no overland alternatives.”
The race to protect cables
It can be difficult to determine whether a cable was damaged by accident or deliberately, but heightened geopolitical tensions have raised suspicions of sabotage.
Estonia said last month that it would deploy naval assets to protect cables connecting it with Finland after its Estlink 2 cable was damaged on Christmas Day. Finland is
investigating a Russian oil tanker that was seized after the incident and may have been dragging its anchor along the seabed.
“Three cases in one year cannot be a coincidence,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said last month.
NATO is also deploying at least two ships to the Baltic Sea area for surveillance.
Source:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...cion-falls-russian-chinese-vessels-rcna187105
