The German Navy will contribute ships to defend infrastructure in the Baltic Sea amid concerns about Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and recent incidents of damage to cables, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.
Scholz, who is attending a gathering in Helsinki on Baltic Sea security, said that Germany was prepared to assume responsibility “with its own resources” in view of the growing threat.
“Of course, this means that we will also ensure security in the Baltic Sea with German ships,” he said.
The Russian “shadow fleet” refers to tankers and other cargo ships, often ageing vessels in poor condition and with opaque ownership structures, that Russia uses to export oil and other commodities despite sanctions imposed as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
Germany’s Foreign Office now counts a total of 79 ships in the “shadow fleet.”
NATO intends to significantly expand its presence in the Baltic Sea, and is launching a surveillance mission. The two new NATO members, Finland and Sweden, have already announced that they will be participating with ships.
According to information obtained by dpa, the NATO mission will involve a total of around 10 naval ships. Estonia already has a naval vessel patrolling the Gulf of Finland.
At the summit in Helsinki, the eight NATO countries on the Baltic Sea – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden – are seeking to coordinate responses to suspected deliberate acts of damage to infrastructure in the sea.
Scholz spoke of the incidents as a “very serious matter.”
