Nordic Countries Plan To Patrol The Baltic Sea With 20 Warships

This was announced by the Swedish Minister of Defence.

Defence ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a group of northern European states led by the UK, agreed on Tuesday to strengthen patrols of the Baltic Sea and parts of the North Sea with about 20 warships.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said this in a comment to SVT.

At an extraordinary meeting, defence ministers of the British-led JEF decided to patrol the Baltic Sea with about 20 warships starting on Friday 1 December.

The Swedish minister called the decision “deterrent and stabilizing.”

“We are talking about maritime surveillance, about 20 warships will operate in the Baltic Sea, as well as in some parts of the North Atlantic, to take into account the security situation and better protect critical infrastructure underwater,” he explained.

According to Jonson, the JEF has not previously made decisions on such operational activities, and the current one took place in close consultation with the North Atlantic Alliance.

“This is, of course, a symptom of a very serious security situation in the world, but especially in our own region, and we must be able to carry out such operations to protect critical infrastructure, as well as to send signals to Russia,” the minister added.

Last year, explosions occurred on the Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which forced the states of the region to pay attention to the safety of underwater infrastructure.