Norway will take on part of responsibility for security of hub in Jasionka, says PM
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Norway will take on, within the NATO alliance, part of the responsibility for the security of the logistics hub in Jasionka, through which most aid directed to Ukraine passes. Tusk added that possible joint operations in the Baltic would have to be part of NATO's operations.
Speaking at a press conference in Harpsund, Sweden, Tusk noted that Sweden's actions related to the incident at the bottom of the Baltic Sea are in the interest of all countries in the region.
At issue is the damage to two undersea telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea: one connecting Lithuania to Sweden and the other connecting Finland to Germany. In both cases, this occurred in the Swedish economic zone. The crew of the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 is suspected of breaking the cables. Swedish and German authorities are negotiating the possibility of boarding and questioning the crew.
Tusk also stressed that Polish-Swedish defence cooperation is a cooperation between NATO countries. He indicated that possible joint actions between the Nordic, Baltic countries and Poland related to patrolling the Baltic waters would also have to be part of NATO activities.
Poland's Prime Minister reported that on Wednesday he had received information from the Norwegian Prime Minister that Norway was taking some responsibility for the security of the Rzeszow-Jasionka hub, through which 90 percent of aid to Ukraine runs.
"Norway will support with its systems the security of this location," Tusk said, stressing that this is within the framework of NATO.
"NATO does not exclude specific joint actions by individual groups of countries," he pointed out.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk proposed on Wednesday at the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) summit the creation of joint Baltic Sea patrol missions with the Nordic and Baltic states, operating in an analogous way to NATO's Baltic Air Policing operation, a mission to control the airspace over the Baltic states.
The NB8 consists of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
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