Norway agrees to partnership with UK to protect undersea pipelines

Norway has signed an agreement with the UK for a security partnership aiming to prevent attacks on undersea gas pipelines and cables.

As part of the agreement, Norwegian and British defense ministers will exchange intelligence, counter mine threats, and better their ability to detect submarines from hostile nations.

Speaking about potential threats, Bjørn Arild Gram, the Minister of Defence of Norway, explained, “What we know is the Russians have a work program; they have a specific naval program designed to both look at and potentially sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to its adversaries.”

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace commented that Russia “has a number of submarines and other pieces of equipment and spy ships and everything else specifically designed for that purpose.”

Wallace explained that the UK will send its first patrolling ship in July, with the goal of protecting wind farms, cables and gas pipelines in Norwegian and British waters.