Germany Deploys Special Forces to Protect Critical Infrastructure in Baltic Sea

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has ordered the deployment of an elite maritime unit of the GSG-9 special police unit to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

This was reported by the German TV channel ARD.

According to it, in the future, GSG-9 will be stationed in Neustadt, in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein on the Baltic Sea.

The city already has a representative office of the German Federal Police's Maritime Directorate, which facilitates the financial and organisational issues of the special forces deployment.

The new location is intended in particular to take into account the growing threat at sea - in terms of both the protection of critical infrastructure and possible terrorist threats, for example, in the form of a terrorist attack on or by a ship, ARD says.

In addition, being based in Neustadt will allow GSG-9 to respond more quickly in the event of operations in northern Germany.

GSG-9 is a counter-terrorism unit of the German Federal Police and a specialised unit of the federal government, subordinated to the German Ministry of the Interior. Its task is to fight Islamist terrorism and right-wing terrorism, as well as serious organised crime such as smuggling.

Earlier, Germany proposed to expand vetting measures for employees in sensitive industries, including critical infrastructure, due to concerns about espionage. This comes amid warnings from European intelligence services that Russia has stepped up its sabotage operations.