AMSTERDAM, 13 Jun: An alliance of northern European nations pledged Tuesday to do more to protect critical undersea and offshore infrastructure in the face of shared challenges, including what they alleged was Russian ships conducting mapping that indicated “preparations for possible disruption and, at worst, sabotage.”
The statement was issued after defense ministers from the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a military alliance of northern European nations, met in Amsterdam to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine. Worries that energy and communications infras-tructure outside Ukraine might be targeted have soared since an apparent attack on two Baltic Sea gas pipelines in September.
Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace both declined to comment on reports by Dutch broadcasters NOS and Nieusuur and German media outlets Die Zeit and ARD about the Nord Stream pipelines.
The news outlets said the CIA, acting on a tip from the Dutch military intellige-nce agency, warned Ukraine in June 2022 last year not to sabotage the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, which were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany. The media cited unnamed intelligence sources.
“When we’ve talked about Nord Stream, we’ve always said we have to wait for the results of the ongoing investigations,” Ollongren told reporters in the Dutch capital. “Germany is invest-igating, Sweden is investiga-ting, Denmark is investiga-ting. We don’t have the results in yet. So until then, I will not comment on it.”
Wallace echoed Ollongren, saying that “we don’t comment on intelligence matters.”
Russia has alleged that the U.S. was behind the explosions that damaged the pipelines.
The expeditionary force members said in their statement that they decided at the meeting “to accelerate cooperation in the JEF in order to detect, deter and respond to threats against our critical undersea and offshore infrastructure, reassure allies and demonstrate collective commitment to the security and stability of Northern Europe; all in full alignment with NATO.” (AP)