NATO Strengthens Baltic Security in Response to Unverified Report of Russian Fleet

NATO is to strengthen its presence in the Baltic Sea by an intensified vigilance initiative, it announced Tuesday at a key summit in Helsinki.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced the plan during the closing remarks of the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit, that was convened with the purpose of discussing how the security situation could be enhanced within the region, Xinhua news agency reports.

The initiative, called Baltic Sentry, is to increase maritime presence and monitoring in the key areas for the alliance, Rutte said. Vigilance in the Baltic Sea region will be enhanced through various assets, such as frigates and maritime patrol aircraft.

Rutter stressed that ship captains must understand that any potential threats to critical infrastructure will result in serious consequences, including boarding, impounding, and arrest.

This takes place against a backdrop of recent media reports concerning the Russian shadow fleet circling above the subsea Baltic Pipe pipeline.

Among others, the summit hosted the heads of state and ministers of Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and also the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, at the invitation of the President of Finland Alexander Stubb and the Prime Minister of Estonia Kristen Michal.

After the meeting, a joint statement was released that detailed actions to protect critical infrastructure and react more effectively to the threats of the so-called Russian shadow fleet.

Advanced technologies will be deployed by NATO to enhance monitoring and surveillance over infrastructure and vessels suspected of being part of the shadow fleet.

However, when referring to the Tuesday media report about the Russian shadow fleet, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters that he had not been contacted relating to any such information concerning the shadow fleet.

On the same day, Pawel Wronski, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also reported that the ministry had no information about a ship of the shadow fleet circling over the subsea pipeline known as the Baltic Pipe.