It’s hard to believe damage to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline earlier this month “wasn’t an act of sabotage by China,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said in a recent interview.
“Reports indicate that a Chinese shipping vessel dragged anchor, potentially for miles, causing severe damage to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline and two telecommunications cables,” Schmitt said in a statement Thursday.
“While the investigation by Finnish authorities is ongoing, it’s hard to believe that this wasn’t an act of sabotage by China, especially considering the energy situation in Europe. We need answers, and if it was in fact a deliberate act of sabotage, China needs to be held accountable.”
Finnish police on Tuesday said it was too early to tell if the ship that damaged the pipeline did so by accident or deliberate act.
Broad drag marks were seen on the seabed leading up to where the pipeline was broken, and the anchor was lying immediately after the damage spot. A narrower path was seen on the seabed stretching onwards for dozens of miles, police said.
A piece of the anchor, one of its two spikes, had broken off, they added.
"The next questions are about whether it was intentional, negligence, poor seamanship, and that's where we get into whether there could be a motive for what's going on," National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Robin Lardot said at a press conference.
"But it's too early to answer that at this stage," he added.
The NBI on Friday said they were focusing their probe on the Chinese NewNew Polar Bear container vessel that had traveled above the pipeline and the cables at the time of the damage.
The NBI on Tuesday said they had established that the NewNew Polar Bear was in fact missing one of its front anchors and said they had tried unsuccessfully to contact the ship to ask whether this was the one retrieved in the Gulf of Finland.
China called on Monday for an "objective, fair and professional" investigation into the pipeline damage.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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