Beijing/Helsinki: China today said it was ready to provide “necessary assistance in accordance with international law”, to a probe by Finland into the October 8, 2023, rupture in the Baltic Sea gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable that indicated it could be the handiwork of a Chinese ship. Finland claimed that the suspected ship, Newnew Polar Bear, was contacted several times, “but they were not willing to cooperate”.
China, however, claimed today that it always holds that the international community needs to strengthen cooperation to jointly safeguard the safety and security of the transboundary infrastructure. “This is very important. China maintains unimpeded communication with parties including Finland over this incident… The incident is still under investigation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told journalists in Beijing today.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said that to reach the vessel, international cooperation has been carried out — at present with the Chinese authorities in order to continue the investigations into the vessel as well.
Beijing today stated that it hoped “relevant parties will follow the principles of being objective, fair, just and professional and find out what happened soon”.
The damaged gas pipeline known as Balticconnector is located in Finland’s exclusive economic zone.
Earlier, on October 24, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation claimed that the sequence of events had been established on the basis of evidence and data, and the vessel Newnew Polar Bear, flying the flag of Hong Kong, was believed to have caused the damage.
According to the General Head of Investigation at the National Bureau of Investigation, Detective Superintendent Risto Lohi, a 1.5 to 4-metre-wide dragging trail was seen on the seabed, to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline. He disclosed that in the distance of a few metres from the gas pipeline damage point, there was an anchor which is believed to have caused the wide dragging trail and the damage itself. When the anchor was lifted up, there were traces in it which indicated that it had been in contact with the gas pipeline.”From the finding point of the anchor onward, a narrow dragging trace is to be seen and it matches size-wise with the part connecting the anchor to the chain. These observations in connection with data analysed on the traffic of the vessels have corroborated the main line of investigation concerning the role of the vessel Newnew Polar Bear of a Chinese shipping company and flying the flag of Hong Kong in the incident,” Lohi revealed. He, however, conceded that “we could not visually confirm that both front anchors of the vessel were in their place, which helped in focusing the suspicions on this particular ship”.
Earlier, the police established in the criminal investigation that the movements of the vessel Newnew Polar Bear coincided with the time and place of the gas pipeline damage. The investigators are now paying particular attention to investigating if there had been any premeditation or negligence involved in the sequence of events. The Finnish police were further examining the background and movements of the Chinese vessel as a part of a criminal investigation “with the assistance of international partners”. A crucial angle being explored was whether there was intentional damage to the pipeline as aggravated criminal mischief.
At the scene of the investigation, the police, assisted by the Border Guard and the Defence Forces, required several dives into the damaged object at a depth of dozens of metres.
– global bihari bureau
