NATO Commander emphasized in an August interview with the media that NATO is accelerating its operations to enhance monitoring and security protection capabilities of underwater cables to deter threats of sabotage from China, Russia, and other hostile forces. He mentioned that NATO’s deployed patrol and monitoring fleet in the Baltic Sea has effectively curbed attacks in the “grey zone.”
Arlo Abrahamson, Public Affairs Director of NATO’s Maritime Command, told the Nikkei Asian Review, “We need to maintain troops on the ground to minimize potential damage to key underwater infrastructure by foreign forces and to act as a deterrent.”
In January of this year, NATO launched the “Baltic Sentry” mission in the Baltic Sea, deploying patrol planes, warships, naval drones, and advanced monitoring systems. The Commander stated that since January, there have been no malicious incidents of sabotage to underwater cables in the Baltic Sea.
Following the European Union’s release of the “Cable Security Action Plan” in February to bolster protection and maintenance capabilities of underwater cables, NATO stated its commitment to continue relevant missions. Abrahamson mentioned, “NATO has sufficient resources to monitor underwater cables in the long term and through collective defense mechanisms with allied nations, NATO holds an advantage in responding to security threats.”
As global data and communications heavily rely on underwater cables, Europe, Japan, and the United States are increasingly prioritizing their security. The demand for protection missions has become more urgent due to new infrastructure requirements driven by artificial intelligence.
During Christmas last year, the Russian oil tanker “Eagle S” had an anchor drag incident in the Gulf of Finland, causing damage to an electricity cable and four telecommunication cables. Similarly, the Chinese cargo ship “Yi Peng 3” had multiple anchor drag incidents in the same area, leading to the fracturing of underwater cables. Both China and Russia denied any intentional sabotage involvement.
Andrew Yeh, Executive Director of the China Strategic Risk Institute (CSRI), pointed out that these incidents demonstrate how vulnerable underwater cables are to “grey zone actions” such as military intimidation, blockades, cyber-attacks, and other non-military means, potentially involving the Chinese and Russian governments.
Yeh stated, “China has shown proficiency in conducting grey zone actions in the Taiwan Strait. Given the deepening strategic alliance between China and Russia, including support for the Russia-Ukraine war, we must equally consider threats from China and Russia.”
Kristi Govella, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, highlighted that incidents of suspected Chinese vessels cutting cables have occurred in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. Japan is highly vigilant about this issue and is collaborating with the EU to enhance underwater cable security.
Govella emphasized that cable resilience construction should cover the full lifecycle from development to repair, yet current cable repair operations still rely on Chinese vessels.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued a regulation this month prohibiting the use of Chinese components in underwater cables connecting to the United States.
(The article referenced reports from the Nikkei Asian Review)