Can NATO protect the Baltic Sea?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Accusations of sabotage have been made after a Chinese merchant ship cut through two important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Eight of the nine states in the Baltic are members of NATO but Russia has access to the sea from St Petersburg and for its Kaliningrad exclave.
With previous incidents of damage to underwater pipelines and cables, there’s concern that the security of critical underwater infrastructure is at risk from ‘grey zone’ activities - damaging but deniable incidents below the level of outright war.
David Baker hears how countries’ security is threatened by incidents like these. The pipelines that were cut ran between Finland and Germany and Sweden and Lithuania. He asks who can intervene to protect these assets in the Baltic. Can NATO respond?
EXPERTS: Elizabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Scowcroft Centre for Strategy and Security, a thinktank based in Washington DC in the US and the author of an upcoming book called The Undersea War.
Helga Kalm, director of the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn, Estonia, an annual meeting dedicated to international security and foreign affairs.
Marion Messmer, senior research fellow in the International Security Programme at Chatham House, an international relations think tank in London, UK.
Tormod Heier, a professor at the National Defence University College in Oslo, Norway and a former officer in the Norwegian Intelligence Service.
CREDITS: Presenter - David Baker Producer - Philip Reevell. Researcher - Katie Morgan Editor - Tara McDermott Technical Producer - Craig Boardman
Image Credit - Rex/Shutterstock via BBC Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, |
| 0:22.4 | Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey. History's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | Welcome to The Inquiry with me, David Baker. Each week, one question, four expert witnesses, |
| 0:38.5 | and an answer. |
| 0:53.8 | In November this year, 30 NATO vessels carrying 4,000 military personnel, embarked on a 10-day drill in the Baltic Sea in northeastern Europe. |
| 0:58.2 | Their mission? |
| 1:05.3 | To find ways to protect the elaborate network of undersea communications cables and gas pipelines that link the countries in the region. |
| 1:09.8 | Two days before the fleet set off, two of those cables, one between Sweden and Lithuania, |
| 1:15.6 | the other between Finland and Germany, had been severed by a Chinese ship dragging its anchor on the sea bed. |
| 1:23.6 | And that was just the latest in a series of attacks on the Baltic's undersea infrastructure |
| 1:28.8 | that have taken place since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. |
| 1:36.0 | The countries in the region are worried as events like these bring the war in Ukraine closer to Europe's borders. |
| 1:45.2 | So in this episode of the inquiry, we're asking, |
| 1:48.4 | can NATO protect the Baltic Sea? |
| 1:55.5 | Part 1. The Cable Incident. |
| 2:07.7 | The first signs of that most recent attack came on the morning of Sunday November the 17th. |
| 2:16.8 | The operators of a cable in the Baltic Sea connecting Sweden and Lithuania discovered discovered that that cable had been damaged. |
| 2:20.3 | Then, less than 24 hours later, the operators of another cable discovered that it too |
| 2:27.2 | had been damaged and that cable is the only cable connecting Finland with Germany. |
| 2:33.4 | Our first witness is Elizabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Skowcroft |
| 2:39.1 | Centre for Strategy and Security, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. in the US, and the author |
| 2:45.4 | of an upcoming book called The Undersea War. |
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