Vadym Khlyudzinskyi17:06, 06/03/24

NATO allies are concerned about the country’s inability to contribute to its own defense.

Last week, the armed forces of France, Great Britain and Norway tracked the movement of a Russian submarine off the west coast of Ireland. NATO allies are concerned about the possibility of Russian attacks on cables and pipelines and Ireland’s inability to contribute to its own defense. This is reported by The Times .

A French Bréguet 1150 Atlantic aircraft was said to have been conducting surveillance near County Clare in the past few days, before the UK and Norway sent a Boeing Poseidon P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the area near the cities of Sligo and Donegal.

According to media reports, Russian attack submarines are often present in international waters off the coast of Ireland, but their location has raised concerns at the highest levels of the Defense Forces and among European allies. The area is home to the Corrib gas pipeline as well as an important submarine cable. At the same time, tracking submarines is what these planes are used for.

“The fact that planes are taking turns watching what’s going on shows that each country can’t do the job on its own. The tracking effort shows how serious they are about what’s going on. It’s also shows that Ireland is not capable of defending itself. The Irish would be involved in this operation if they had something to help,” said Keir Giles, a Russia analyst at the London-based think tank Chatham House.

At the top of the list of issues affecting Ireland is the threat posed by Russia to underwater gas pipelines and fiber optic cables connecting Europe and North America.

“Ireland simply doesn’t have the capacity to deal with these kinds of threats, but we need to educate the public so we can make individual arrangements with countries,” said Declan Power, a security analyst.

Journalists emphasize that there are countless examples of how “strange vessels” examine cables off the coast of Ireland. At the same time, critical infrastructure near the west coast is particularly vulnerable.

“Moscow has already mapped a large part of the seabed, including British and Irish wind turbines, in readiness for any conflict in which sabotage may play a role,” the publication notes.

(C)UNIAN 2024