Estonia again refutes suggestions that the rupture of a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea last year by a Chinese cargo ship was an accident, China has still to respond a request for legal assistance

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Estonian officials have again refuted suggestions that the rupture of the Balticconnector gas pipeline and two data cables in the Baltic Sea by the Chinese cargo ship, NewNew Polar Bear, in October 2023 was an accident.

“You would need to find a very stupid captain” for the incident to have been an accident, Jüri Saska, commander of the Estonian Navy (Merevägi), stated. Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur pointed out that the length of the furrow (180 km) that the Chinese ship’s anchor made on the seabed made it hard to believe that the incident was accidental. When the ship struck the gas pipeline, its speed dropped suddenly from 11 knots to 6 knots, which must have made a very loud noise throughout the ship’s hull, Saska noted.

Nevertheless, the ship’s crew insisted that it had no need for assistance. China has yet to respond to Estonia’s and Finland’s request for legal assistance in the investigation.

By the time the Newnew Polar Bear moved out of Estonia's area of responsibility, on October 11, a criminal case had already been initiated on both sides of the Gulf of Finland.

Finland is investigating the case as an act of sabotage, as damage to Estonian infrastructure. In the aftermath of the incident, the two countries jointly submitted to China a request for legal assistance, but 11 months and two weeks later had not received an official response.