Sweden plans to boost coast guard surveillance in Baltic Sea

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of an air defense system via Wikimedia Commons

COPENHAGEN - Sweden is proposing legislation to increase security in the Baltic Sea by expanding its coast guard's ability to conduct maritime surveillance, the Nordic country's defence ministry said on Friday.

The Baltic Sea region is on heightened alert following a string of undersea cable and gas pipeline outages in the years following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as well as recent drone sightings and airspace violations.

"We have not chosen our external situation, but we must deal with the reality we face," Sweden's Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin said in a statement.

NATO, of which Sweden is a member, said on Saturday that it was upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other assets following drone incursions in Denmark.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik // REUTERS)

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