The Estonian Parliament intends to grant the Defense Forces the right to use military force against merchant ships in case of suspected attempts to damage submarine cables and other critical infrastructure.

ERR reported on this.

According to the publication, as a last resort, the military will have the right to sink a suspicious vessel if it does not obey their orders.

“If we use armed force against someone in international waters, thereby violating freedom of navigation, then everything must be thoroughly thought out. If the Navy and Defense Forces apply this law, they must have both diplomatic justification and appropriate means, i.e., ships, weapons, as well as legislative and diplomatic support,” former Navy Commander Jüri Saska commented.

According to him, the right to sink a suspicious vessel is an extreme measure that will be used only in case of a real threat to many people’s lives or to avoid a large-scale disaster.

And even then, before the vessel is sunk, its entire crew must be evacuated.

“I don’t even know how to comment on this. If I were a ship’s commander, how am I supposed to sink a ship whose crew I evacuated myself? After all, once evacuated, it no longer poses a danger – neither to critical infrastructure nor anything else. Flooding, in this case, can pose a significant threat to the environment. Everything looks rather confusing here,” Saska noted.

Baltic Sentry

On January 14, it was reported that NATO announced the launch of a new operation, Baltic Sentry, aimed at protecting the region’s maritime infrastructure.

The announcement was made during a summit of NATO’s Baltic nations with the participation of Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.

During the summit, the region’s leaders discussed the growing threat to critical underwater infrastructure.

As part of Operation Baltic Sentinel, warships and aircraft provide security. The Secretary General also announced the deployment of a fleet of maritime drones.

At the end of January, the F-35A fifth-generation multi-role fighter jets of the Royal Netherlands Air Force joined the mission.