Finland PM-Working w/China Over HK Ship Nr Damaged Gas Pipeline

(MNI) London - Wires reporting comments from Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stating that "Finland has started working with China over the presence of Newnew Polar Bear [a Hong Kong-flagged container vessel] in the Baltic Sea during the pipeline incident." Orpo is referring to the damage to the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable running between Finland and Estonia on 8 October. At last week's EUCO summit, Orpo claimed that “...Now we are cooperating with China to find the role of the Chinese ship which was in this area at the time the damage happened...They have promised to do good collaboration.”

• On 24 October, Finnish police claimedthat the damage to the pipeline was caused by the Newnew Polar Bear's 6-ton anchor dragging on the seabed.
• Offshore Magazine: "Officials said that establishing if the damage was intentional, unintentional, or due to “bad seafaring” would be the focus of the next phase of the probe."
• Barents Observer: "[Newnew Polar Bear] left the north Russian port of Arkhangelsk with course towards Arctic waters.The Newnew Polar Bear will this week sail through the Kara Sea and make it through the icy strait of Vilkitsky. Escorted by a Russian state-owned icebreaker it will subsequently sail eastwards along the North Siberian coast towards the Bering Strait and into Pacific waters."