NATO intends to increase efforts to prevent and counter threats to critical infrastructure, including submarine cables and pipelines.

NATO will create a coordination group to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure facilities.

Such a statement was made by the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, at the briefing.

Stoltenberg emphasized that NATO continues to work on the security measures of the member countries of the Alliance, one of the directions of which is the protection of critical underwater infrastructure.

“We have decided to establish a new coordination group at NATO headquarters to map our vulnerabilities and engage with industry. This will support our efforts to prevent and counter threats to critical infrastructure, including submarine cables and pipelines,” the NATO Secretary General said.

“We will closely cooperate with the European Union through the NATO-EU Task Force on Resilience and Critical Infrastructure,” he said.

Explosions on the “North Stream”

At the end of September 2022, the Nord Stream operator announced that the pressure in both threads of the Russian gas pipeline had dropped sharply. A leak of up to 500 million cubic meters of technical gas was reported.

On September 27, 2022, information appeared that explosions were heard in the Nord Stream area.

On September 28, the leaders of Western countries made an emotional statement regarding the Nord Stream. On the same day, a statement regarding the Nord Stream was also made in the EU.

The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian authorities do not rule out the possibility of sabotage.

The European Union believes that the gas leak was the result of deliberate actions. Leaders of Western countries also did not deny that it was sabotage.

Representatives of Sweden, Denmark and Germany were named as responsible for the investigation in the EC.

Russia has offered its participation in the investigation of gas pipeline explosions.

The Swedish prosecutor’s office informed the aggressor that it was not interested in implementing Russia’s initiative to create a joint investigative team to investigate damage to the facilities.

Sweden’s refusal to cooperate was explained by the fact that meeting Russia’s request would pose a threat to the country’s security.

Sweden’s State Security Service confirmed that the leak was caused by explosions.