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Sweden's foreign minister said China has rejected a request by prosecutors to investigate a Chinese ship linked to two broken cables in the Baltic Sea.
China says it has provided information and documents for an open investigation into the disruption of two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, although Sweden says Beijing has not been transparent enough about the case.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a briefing in Beijing on Monday that China had invited Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark to participate and complete the investigation.
Sections of two telecoms the cables were cut in November in Swedish territorial waters. Suspicion centered on the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which ship-tracking sites said was sailing above the cables around the time they were cut.
She spoke about the incident when asked about a report by the Financial Times that Sweden had criticized China for denying full access despite an open investigation and the alleged ban on a Swedish prosecutor from boarding the Yi Peng 3 related to the cable break.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergaard said China had not honored the government's request that the prosecutor be able to conduct the board's preliminary investigation.
“Our request that Swedish prosecutors, together with, among others, the police be allowed to take certain investigative measures within the board's preliminary investigation remains,” Stenergaard told Reuters.
“We've been very clear about that with China.”
Stenergaard said Sweden hopes to continue its dialogue with China to enable police and prosecutors to investigate the cable outages.
In response, Mao said: “In order to cooperate with the investigation, the Yi Peng 3 was grounded for a long period of time, and in order to protect the physical and mental health of the crew, the ship's owning company decided to resume its voyage after comprehensive evaluation and consultation with stakeholders .”
She added that Beijing has notified all relevant countries in advance and is ready to maintain communication and cooperation.
On Thursday, authorities from Sweden, Germany and Finland were invited on board as observers for an investigation led by China.
A representative of Denmark also accompanied the group, as the country had played a “facilitating role” by hosting meetings between the countries earlier in the week, its Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said.
Prosecutor Henrik Söderman told AFP that no measures had been taken as part of the Swedish judicial investigation, including questioning of crew members or technical investigations.
After the failure of cables in the Baltic Sea, one connecting Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was clear to assume it's sabotage.
Investigators targeted the Chinese vessel, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 15, just two days before the cables were cut on November 17 and 18.
European officials also said they suspected sabotage related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin dismissed the comments as “absurd” and “ridiculous”.
