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