Finland has witnessed growing threats to subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea in recent years, according to the country’s Environment and Climate Minister, Kai Mykkanen.
In response, Finland and Estonia signed an agreement on Friday to enhance the security of their shared subsea infrastructure, which includes power and telecommunications cables, as well as the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which was damaged a year ago, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Finnish police continue to investigate the pipeline incident while Estonian police lead the investigation of the simultaneous damage to subsea telecommunications links.
Police in both countries have yet to provide their conclusions.
“During the past few years we’ve noticed the concrete way that there is increasing threats for the security of the energy transfer routes, unfortunately, especially under the Finnish Gulf and overall in the Baltic Sea area,” Mykkanen said.
Mykkanen said the enhanced cooperation meant that the two countries would join forces to boost technical surveillance, patrolling and repair capacities of the subsea infrastructure.