British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey met with counterparts from Baltic and Nordic nations to discuss seizing oil tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, as Europe seeks to tighten curbs on Moscow’s war economy nearly four years after its invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a group of 10 nations with a shared commitment to the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea, took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to one of the participants and people familiar with the matter.
The gathering underscored a growing willingness among allied nations to do more to squeeze revenue funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Putin’s forces have made costly but steady gains in Ukraine in recent months.
Photo: AFP
“The atmosphere and the understanding was that we need to be more proactive,” Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur said in an interview after joining the gathering. “The message is that the countries who give flags to the shadow fleet vessels need to know that there are measures that can be taken by other countries.”
More discussion would be needed before any decision is made, Pevkur said. Some members remain cautious given a “fear of escalation,” Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna said in a separate interview.
Healey was joined at the meeting by the head of the UK’s military, Richard Knighton, who presented options including joint seizure operations, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
With such a move, the JEF would build on US interdiction of tankers moving to and from Venezuela — sometimes with the help of allies — in the wake of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s kidnapping. Several of those vessels have had ties to Russia.
It is unclear to what extent the US would be involved in the UK-led effort, but there would likely be some coordination, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. The interdictions of the Russia-linked vessels have prompted concern in Moscow, with Russian officials privately demanding that the US stop, the person said.
The shadow fleet is a group of about 1,500 tankers that use false flags to appear legitimate without having to comply with regulations. More than 600 tankers have been sanctioned by some combination of the EU, the UK and the US for their links to Russia.
Last month, 14 European nations warned that tankers in the Baltic and North Seas must sail under a single state’s flag. That was aimed at shadow fleet vessels that sometimes switch or fly under false flags.
On Jan. 7, the UK helped the US seize the oil tanker Marinera, which was sailing under a Russian flag, following a days-long chase after it left the Caribbean Sea. France’s navy boarded an oil tanker coming from Russia into the Mediterranean Sea on Jan. 22.
“While European actions are nibbling at the margins, a more concerted effort would raise the stakes, throttling access to the easiest routes to Asia,” Bloomberg economics analysts Chris Kennedy and Alex Kokcharov said.
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