Nine Nordic Countries Led by the UK Will Patrol the Baltic Sea With 20 Warships

Today, at an extraordinary meeting of defence ministers in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), led by Great Britain, it was decided to patrol the Baltic Sea with approximately 20 military ships starting from Friday. This was announced by the Minister of Defence of Sweden, Paul Jonson, as reported by the Swedish portal SVT.

"Today, we decided that the JEF will increase its naval presence in the Baltic Sea. This involves conducting maritime surveillance, with approximately 20 naval vessels being active in the Baltic Sea and parts of the North Atlantic to address security concerns and better protect critical underwater infrastructure," says Paul Jonson. He describes this decision as "restraining and stabilizing."

Previously, the JEF had not made decisions on such operational measures, and, according to the Swedish Minister of Defence, today's decision was made in close consultation with NATO.

"This is, of course, a symptom of the fact that we have a very serious political security environment, but, first and foremost, also in our immediate area, and then such efforts must be able to be taken to be able to protect critical infrastructure and also send signals to Russia," emphasized the Minister of Defence.

In addition to Sweden, among others, the United Kingdom is participating with a frigate and maritime surveillance aircraft.

The decision of the JEF to increase its naval presence in the Baltic Sea is also a consequence of the security summit held on Gotland in October. After the summit, the heads of participating governments decided to instruct the defence ministers of the respective countries to prepare a plan for the protection of critical underwater infrastructure.

The protection of critical underwater infrastructure is currently very relevant, not least after sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022 and a probable sabotage in October 2023 on the Balticconnector gas pipeline and two data transmission cables, one of which is Swedish.

On October 8, a leak was discovered on the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia. Soon it was revealed that the pipe was severely damaged, and the authorities suspect that the damage was intentional.

Earlier, Finland stated that it suspects Russia of damaging the Balticconnector submarine cable and the gas pipeline to Estonia.

The damaged marine telecommunications cable is part of critical infrastructure that ensures the availability of communication and the Internet in Sweden and Estonia. 

JEF is a UK-led task group consisting of armed forces from the UK and eight partner nations: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.