The conference, which will be hosted by Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, and Kristen Michal, the Estonian prime minister, will bring the heads of states or governments from the NATO members that border the Baltic.
According to a press release published by Stubb’s office, the conference will focus on “the security of the Baltic Sea region, especially measures required to secure the critical underwater infrastructure.”
“The discussion will focus on strengthening of NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to the threat posed by Russia’s shadow fleet,” it added.
In December a number of undersea cables in the Baltic were severed in what the Finnish authorities suspect was a deliberate act of sabotage by a vessel belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet, which is used to bypass sanctions on the export of Russian energy.
On a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, Finland’s foreign minister said these key cables needed to be better protected.
"Finland just recently, during Christmas, successfully intercepted a shadow fleet vessel and we will look into the legal and other conditions for better protecting infrastructure located in international maritime areas,” said Elina Valtonen.
AI ship surveillance system activated
The incident in December – which caused an outage on the Estlink2 electricity network that connects Finland and Estonia – has prompted
regional powers
to activate an AI-driven surveillance system that tracks potentially suspicious naval activity.
The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a ten-country military partnership led by the UK, said that the technology behind its Nordic Warden operation calculates the risk posed by any ship entering sensitive areas, with a specific focus on vessels linked to the so-called Russian shadow fleet.
If there is a potential risk, the system sends an alert to JEF member nations – mostly states that border the Baltic Sea – and their NATO allies.
The UK’s defense minister called Nordic Warden – which was activated last week having been trialed twice in 2024 – a “major innovation which allows us the unprecedented ability to monitor large areas of the sea with a comparatively small number of resources.”
John Healy added that it “will help protect against both deliberate acts of sabotage as well as cases of extreme negligence which we have seen cause damage to underwater cables.”
Baltics to disconnect grid from Russia
Meanwhile, Baltic countries are
stepping up efforts
to secure the continuity of their energy infrastructure before they decouple their power grids from Russia in February, Lithuania's energy minister told the Reuters news agency.
Zygimantas Vaiciunas said that grid operators from the Baltic states are working with their counterpart in Poland on a deal to ensure future arrangements work smoothly.
Polish grid operator PSE confirmed to Reuters that talks were underway with Lithuania, Lativia and Estonia on joint projects to protect infrastructure and obtain EU support for them.
Vaiciunas added that his country’s elite police force has already been deployed to secure its key power link with Poland, along with its largest gas-fired power plant. This decision was prompted directly by the suspected sabotage of the Estlink 2 system, he said.
"We used to think that private security is enough, but now we see full government attention to security is needed," said Vaiciunas.
The power grids of the Baltic states are tied to Russia and Belarus’ electricity networks, a legacy from the era when they were all part of the Soviet Union. The disconnection of the grids – expected to take place on February 8 – follows years of investment backed by around €1.6 billion in EU funding.