It is still not clear who is behind the leaks in Nord Stream 1 and 2. Estonia is therefore in favor of underwater surveillance at NATO. The defense alliance hardly knows what is happening in the depths of the sea.
After the attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur calls for joint underwater surveillance by NATO and a better exchange of information. “NATO has been conducting air policing over the Baltic Sea for years,” Pevkur told the weekly Die Zeit. “We should now also think about “sub policing”, i.e. underwater surveillance.”
While NATO’s air and land reconnaissance is already good, the defense alliance has too little information about the seas – especially at depth. “As far as the oceans go, we only know what’s happening on the surface. It’s going to be difficult underneath,” Pevkur said. The NATO aspirants Finland and Sweden have good reconnaissance systems, and he hopes that the two countries will share this information more with NATO in the future.
The Estonian defense minister also sees Germany as having a duty. Pevkur also commented in the newspaper on the question of who could be responsible for the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines: “Of course we still have to wait for the investigation, we don’t have any evidence yet. But the only state that has an interest in this sabotage is Russia.”
According to the authorities, a total of four underwater leaks were found in the two pipelines last week, from which enormous amounts of gas escaped for days. The leaks are located near the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, partly in Danish and partly in Swedish waters. At least two explosions would have occurred under water. The EU and NATO assume sabotage. The Kremlin had dismissed speculation about Russian participation as “stupid and absurd”.
