BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday it had provided information and documents for an open investigation into the severing of two Baltic Sea undersea cables, though it and Sweden disagreed over how transparent Beijing had been in the case.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news briefing in Beijing that China had invited Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark to participate in and complete the inquiry.
She spoke about the incident when asked about a Financial Times report that Sweden had criticised China for refusing full access despite an open inquiry, and for allegedly barring a Swedish prosecutor from boarding the Chinese freighter vessel Yi Peng 3 linked to the cable breach.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said China had not heeded the government’s request for the prosecutor to be able to conduct the preliminary investigation on board.
“Our request that Swedish prosecutors together with, among others, the police should be allowed to take certain investigative measures within the framework of the preliminary investigation on board remains,” Stenergard told Reuters. “We have been very clear about this with China.”
Stenergard said Sweden hoped to continue its dialogue with China with the aim of giving the police and prosecutors the possibility to investigate the cable breaches.
On Saturday, the Swedish Coastguard said the bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 had resumed its voyage and was heading to Port Said in Egypt.
The Chinese foreign ministry’s Mao said: “In order to cooperate with the investigation, the Yi Peng 3 was suspended for a long period of time, and to safeguard the physical and mental health of the crew, the shipowner company decided to resume its voyage after a comprehensive assessment and consultation with the parties concerned.”
She added that Beijing had notified all relevant countries in advance and was willing to maintain communication and cooperation.
The Baltic Sea cables, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, were damaged on Nov. 17 and 18, prompting German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed this was caused by sabotage.
Investigators quickly zeroed in on the Chinese ship, which had left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15. A Reuters analysis of MarineTraffic data showed the vessel’s coordinates corresponded to the time and place of the breaches.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Liz Lee in Beijing, Simon Johnson in Stockholm; editing by Edmund Klamann and Mark Heinrich)