NATO will increase its military presence and technological innovation in the Baltic Sea to protect critical infrastructure from sabotage, the head of the transatlantic alliance said at a Helsinki Summit on Tuesday. 

Safeguarding infrastructure “is of utmost importance,” Mark Rutte told reporters, citing energy from pipelines and the 95% of internet traffic that is secured through undersea cables.

In the last two months alone, there’s been damage to one cable between Lithuania and Sweden, another between Germany and Finland, and others between Estonia and Finland.

Investigations are underway, but NATO’s Secretary General believes there is cause for grave concern.

“We have seen elements of a campaign to destabilise our societies through cyber-attacks, assassination attempts and sabotage,” Rutte said, with Russia the presumed culprit.

In response, NATO is increasing surveillance via a small fleet of maritime drones, while an enhanced surveillance operation called “Baltic Sentry” involves frigates and maritime patrol aircraft.

“We will respond decisively when critical infrastructure in our neighbourhood is at risk. Protecting it requires both national and international action,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

Leaders of NATO countries in the Baltic region also pledged to push for robust enforcement, especially when it comes to the Russian shadow fleet of tankers used by Moscow to evade Western sanctions on oil sales.

“We need to make full use of the possibilities allowed by international law to take action against suspicious vessels,” Stubb stressed.

Last month, Finnish police seized a tanker carrying Russian oil, citing suspicions the ship had damaged the Estlink-2 power cable which connects Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor along the seabed on Christmas Day.

“Ship captains must understand that potential threats to our infrastructure will have consequences, including possible boarding, impounding and arrest,” Rutte said.

Ahead of the meeting, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said monitoring was difficult in practice, as around 2,000 ships pass through the Baltic every day.

“Let’s face it, we can’t ensure 100% protection, but if we send a bold signal, I think such incidents will decrease or even stop,” Rinkēvičs told journalists in Helsinki.

Germany will also participate in the Baltic Sentry mission, Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed in separate remarks to reporters.

“We will participate with everything we have in the way of naval capabilities; that will vary, as far as the concrete possibilities of deployment are concerned,” Scholz said, when asked if Germany had made a specific promise on the contribution of ships or planes.

Additional sources • AP

China is reportedly building a series of “D-Day style” barges that could be used to aid an invasion of Taiwan, according to media reports. 

At least three of the new craft have been observed at Guangzhou Shipyard in southern China, according to Naval News.

The barges are inspired by the World War II “Mulberry harbours,” which were portable harbors built for the Allied campaign in Normandy, France, in 1944, The Telegraph reported.

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Tensions between China and Taiwan, a key U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific region, have remained heightened over Beijing’s refusal to recognize the independence of the island nation. 

In its report last week, Naval News said at least three but likely five or more barges were seen in China’s Guangzhou Shipyard. The barges, at over 390 feet, can be used to reach a coastal road or hard surface beyond a beach, the report said. 

In his New Year’s message, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable.

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Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, meet in Taipei. (Official Photo by Chen Lin/Office of the President/File)

“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” he said on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster.

Using barges, Chinese forces could land in areas previously considered unsuitable, including rocky or soft terrain, and beaches where tanks and other heavy equipment can be delivered to firmer ground or a coastal road, the report said. 

“Any invasion of Taiwan from the mainland would require a large number of ships to transport personnel and equipment across the strait quickly, particularly land assets like armored vehicles,” Emma Salisbury, a sea power research fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, told Naval News. “As preparation for an invasion, or at least to give China the option as leverage, I would expect to see a build-up of construction of ships that could accomplish this transportation.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Defense, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, also in Washington.