COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A Swedish probe found no conclusive evidence to suggest that a Chinese ship had deliberately dragged its anchor to damage two Baltic Sea cables, Sweden’s Accident Investigation Authority said on Tuesday, though a separate investigation remains under way.
The Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier has been under investigation for dragging its anchor and breaching two subsea fibre-optic communications cables in Swedish economic waters, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, on November 17-18 last year.
“It cannot be determined with certainty whether a Chinese ship intentionally damaged data cables in the Baltic Sea,” the government authority, which investigates accidents and incidents, said in a statement.
Swedish prosecutor Henrik Soderman told Reuters he was still investigating the case in a separate probe, declining to provide further detail.
Investigators faced some constraints as Chinese authorities maintained jurisdiction over the vessel, prohibiting criminal investigations and recording of interviews aboard, it said.
China in December said it had provided information and documents for the investigation into the severing of the cables, while its ally Russia has so far denied involvement in any of the Baltic infrastructure incidents.
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Stine Jacobsen, William Maclean)
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