While submarine cables are occasionally damaged accidentally, the occurrence of several incidents over a short time “inevitably raises suspicion about the possibility of deliberate sabotage,” Finland’s representative to Taiwan said in an interview last week.
On Nov. 17 and 18 last year, the C-Lion1 cable between Finland and Germany and the BCS East-West Interlink cable between Lithuania and Sweden were cut. The following month, the Estlink 2 electricity cable connecting Estonia and Finland, along with four data cables, were cut in the Finnish exclusive economic zone.
The Russian tanker Eagle S, which set sail from a Russian port, appeared near the scene of the incident involving the C-Lion1 cable, and its anchor was missing. Finnish authorities are investigating the incident for suspected sabotage.
Photo: CNA
Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 (伊鵬3) was seen near the spot where the Estlink 2 cable was cut, which is in Swedish territorial waters.
On Jan. 3, Taiwan reported undersea cable damage in waters off Yehliu (野柳), believed to have been caused by the Cameroon-registered freighter Shunxing-39 (順興39號), owned by a Hong Kong-registered company.
Finland Trade Center in Taiwan Director Lauri Raunio told the Central News Agency in an interview on Wednesday that as Taiwan’s submarine cables were also damaged by a foreign cargo ship, it is difficult to determine whether the incident was accidental or intentional, but the situation has raised suspicions.
Meanwhile, Raunio, who has headed the center since 2022, said his country and Taiwan could complement each other’s strengths and work closer together on technology, green energy, civil resilience and more.
Finnish Customs data showed that two-way trade between Taiwan and Finland rose from about 600 million euros (US$615.29 billion) in 2019 to 1.3 billion euros annually, he said.
Taiwan’s exports of semiconductors, microelectronics and electro-mechanics contributed to the significant increase in bilateral trade, he said.
“I’m very happy to see that the overall trade between Finland and Taiwan has more than doubled in the past three to four years,” he said.
Praising Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, he said that Taiwan’s biggest company in Finland is MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the Hsinchu-based smartphone IC designer, which has a research-and-development center in Oulu, Finland.
Finland is renowned for technology patents, Raunio said, adding that a report published last year by the European Patent Office showed that Finland had applied for the fourth most patents per capita among all European countries, with 422.1 applications per 1 million inhabitants.
“We [Finland] have a pretty solid base of software engineers, combining the hardware from Taiwan [and] software from Finland,” which complement each other’s strengths, he said.
Aside from cooperation in the high-tech sector, Finland’s expertise in geothermal energy, hydrogen power and solid recovered fuels, among others, could help Taiwan as the nation seeks to phase out nuclear power, he said.
Finland also has a robust civil security system, including mandating that new buildings have civil shelters since the 1930s, which could be a focus point for exchanges with Taiwan, Raunio added.
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