Chairman Risch Opening Statement at Hearing on Sabotage in the Baltic Sea

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today gave the following opening remarks at a full committee hearing titled "Sabotage in the Baltic Sea, Implications for European Security, and Lessons for the Indo-Pacific." Witnesses included Dr. Benjamin Schmitt, senior fellow at Kleinman Center for energy and policy, and Perry World House, and The Honorable James C O' Brien, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Chairman Risch gave the following remarks:

"As we sit here today, thousands of miles of cables and pipelines running under the sea power the global economy.

"Subsea cables carry more than 95% of the world's telecommunications traffic and transmit more than $10 trillion in financial transactions every day - let me say that again, $10 trillion in financial transactions. These more than 20,000 miles of underwater oil and gas pipelines and electrical transmission cables are vulnerable to attack by our adversaries, and that's become obvious in recent years.

"Since 2022, there have been at least eight undersea sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea. And likely they are the responsibility of Russia.

"Russia has developed high-end undersea warfare capabilities, as well as low-tech options that mimic the effects of an anchor dragging on the sea floor to hide its behavior.

"It maintains a specialized fleet of so-called "research vessels" run by a Russian military unit masquerading as a research agency known by its Russian acronym GUGI.

"Just two weeks ago, the UK revealed it found Russian military submarines working together to map out subsea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, likely to prepare for future sabotage operations.

"And in 2024, a Russian shadow fleet tanker attempting to evade oil sanctions was seized by the Finnish Coast Guard after it cut four subsea internet cables and a power cable.

"In response to these incidents, NATO and the EU have stepped up their efforts, particularly through the NATO Shipping Center, the Maritime Center for Critical Undersea Infrastructure, and military patrols in the Baltic. But as always, more needs to be done.

"Russia is not the only bad actor. China's military has conducted research into cable cutting technologies and Taiwan has reported five incidents of likely sabotage in only the last two years - that's not just bad luck. Like Russia, China also uses commercial vessels to hide its sabotage.

"Additionally, Chinese companies like HMN Technologies leverage state subsidies to dominate the subsea cable market.

"Allowing one of our foremost adversaries to operate in such a matter creates significant risk. We can't allow this.

"To end undersea sabotage, we need to call it out when it happens and say publicly who did it, if possible. We also need a concerted international effort to improve the resiliency of undersea infrastructure and prevent or mitigate the impact of these attacks when they happen.

"I look forward to hearing more from our witnesses about how we can address the growing threat of undersea sabotage."

These remarks have been lightly edited for clarity. Witness testimony is available on foreign.senate.gov.

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