TALLINN — The Estonian government held an emergency meeting on Thursday following the damage to the Estlink-2 power cable connecting Estonia and Finland on Wednesday.
At a press conference, Estonian officials concurred with Finnish authorities' suspicion that the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S "intentionally" struck the subsea cable.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets stated that Finnish authorities have detained the Eagle S in port for further investigation. "The ship's crew must be prepared to remain in the country's waters for as long as the situation demands," he emphasized, supporting the Finnish investigation.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called for a heightened maritime presence by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the region, describing it as a "deterrent fleet." She added that Finland's investigation would provide further details.
When asked about invoking NATO's Article 4, Kallas stated her intention to discuss the matter with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg after the press conference. Article 4 stipulates that member states will consult whenever a member believes its territorial integrity, political independence, or security is under threat.
Kallas announced that the Estonian navy, in collaboration with allies, would increase patrols around critical infrastructure. She emphasized the importance of cooperative deployments of ships to monitor undersea infrastructure and urged for greater cooperation to accelerate infrastructure improvements.
At a separate press conference on Thursday afternoon, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo noted that he had contacted Baltic Sea allies and that President Sauli Niinistö had reached out to NATO.
The 145-kilometer EstLink 2 cable, running beneath the Gulf of Finland, connects the energy grids of Estonia and Finland. Transmission operators Elering and Fingrid reported the outage on December 25.
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