After weeks of negotiations with the government of China, Swedish police have received permission to board the Chinese bulker Yi Peng 3, which is suspected of intentionally dragging its anchor to sever two subsea cables in the Baltic last month. However, they have not been allowed to question the crew independently: Swedish officials are only present as observers during a Chinese-led flag state boarding and investigation.
Yi Peng 3 has been anchored in the Kattegat since November 18, just outside of Danish territorial seas. Since it is in international waters, Danish officials have no authority to board the ship unless they have strong evidence of a Danish EEZ violation, like illegal fishing - but the cable breaks occurred in the Swedish EEZ, far from Danish waters. Instead, the Yi Peng 3 remained at anchor, guarded by Danish and German law enforcement vessels.
German, Danish and Swedish authorities all want the crew to be questioned, but they have opted to pursue a strictly legal route. Rather than conduct an opposed boarding, they negotiated for permission to board from the vessel's flag state - China. Chinese authorities engaged in diplomatic discussions, but declined to cooperate with a Swedish law-enforcement boarding until this week. The boarding was Chinese-led, and Swedish police were only present as observers, even though the alleged offense occurred in the Swedish EEZ.
European investigators believe that the Yi Peng 3 intentionally severed the two subsea cables in the Baltic on Nov. 17-18, likely on behalf of Russian intelligence services. This week, aninvestigation by Danish news station TV2 turned up compelling evidence that the Yi Peng 3 attempted to sever three other cables on her inbound journey, just off the island of Laeso in the Kattegat. TV2 contracted for an ROV inspection of the route covered by Yi Peng 3's AIS track, and the sonar and video survey found an anchor-shaped drag track on the bottom at the location where the vessel slowed down - right over three charted subsea cable crossings.
