German foreign minister promises more attention to security of Baltic Sea region

BERLIN - The situation in the Baltic Sea region is precarious and the entire region has so far received too little attention, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul believes.

In an interview with the newspaper Neuen Osnabrucker Zeitung (NOZ), the German minister of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) says that security in the Baltic region should be increased in light of the recent suspected acts of sabotage in the Baltic Sea. "The entire Baltic region has received too little attention so far" Wadephul said.

"I think that the entire Baltic region has received too little public attention so far, and I would like to focus more attention there during my term of office," Wadephul told the paper.

"The situation is precarious, that is obvious," emphasized the minister. He referred to an obviously deliberate damaging of data cables between the Baltic countries and Scandinavia and the removal of buoys on the border between Estonia and Russia. He added that Russia had also violated the airspace of EU and NATO states and the Russian navy has been behaving aggressively in the Baltic Sea.

"It is therefore obvious that we are living in a danger zone here," the German minister said.

"It is clear that Schleswig-Holstein is of strategic importance if we want to make the entire Baltic Sea region safer," said Wadephul. That is why the Defense Ministry is also considering strengthening German military bases in the north of the country.

Wadephul follows the same approach as Germany's previous defense minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens Party. At the end of April, she insisted on better protections for infrastructure in view of the attacks on data cables in the Baltic Sea.