The Chinese cargo ship suspected of involvement in the severing of two cables in the Baltic Sea, which has been moored off the coast of Denmark since November 19, left the area on Saturday, according to the Swedish coast guard and ship tracking sites.
Hanna Buhler, a duty officer in the Swedish coast guard, told AFP that the ship”reported that it was sailing towards Egypt and Port said,” adding that the device will continue to monitor the ship. The ship tracking site “Vesselfinder” showed that the ship “Yi Ping 3” was sailing north from the Kattegat Strait.
Kaplan cut off communications on November 17 and 18 in the Swedish territorial waters of the Baltic Sea.
Suspicions hovered around the ship “Yi Ping 3”, which, according to ship tracking sites, was sailing over the cables when the incident occurred.
The Chinese ship has been anchored in the international waters of the Kattegat Strait between Sweden and Denmark since November 19.
On Thursday, Swedish, German and Finnish authorities were invited to board the ship during an investigation by China.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced to the media in his country that a Danish representative was accompanying the group after playing the role of “mediator” by organizing meetings between the countries at the Danish Foreign Ministry over the weekend.
“Representatives of the Chinese authorities are conducting investigations on board the ship and have invited the Swedish authorities to participate as observers,” Swedish police said in a statement on Thursday.
European officials have said they suspect sabotage linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin rejected these statements, calling them” ridiculous”and”ridiculous”.
At the end of November, Sweden asked China to cooperate in the investigation, but Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was careful to confirm that there were no “accusations” of any kind.
On November 17, the cable “alerion”, connecting the Swedish island of Gotland with Lithuania, was damaged. The next day, the submarine cable “C-Lion 1” was cut, which connects Helsinki with the German port of Rostock south of the Swedish island of Oland, 700 kilometers from Helsinki.
Tensions in the Baltic Sea have escalated since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.