China calls for UN to investigate "deliberate" sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines

China has called on the United Nations to investigate the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, describing the blasts as a “deliberate act” by state actors.

At a UN Security Council briefing on February 21, Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun said China shared the position of many countries in calling for an investigation “to uncover the truth and identify those responsible”, South China Morning Post reports.

“It is increasingly clear that what happened to the Nord Stream pipelines was by no means an accident, but rather a deliberate act. From the perspective of physical conditions, it is hard to imagine that any non-state actor would be capable of carrying out such destruction alone,” Zhang said.

The two pipelines – Nord Stream 1 and 2 – were sabotaged on September 26, about a month after Moscow cut off gas supplies. Nord Stream 1 had carried Russian gas to Germany, while Nord Stream 2 had yet to enter service. Germany had suspended its certification process of the pipeline just before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Separate investigations being carried out by Denmark, Sweden and Germany have concluded that the pipelines were extensively damaged “by powerful explosions due to sabotage”. But Russia, which called for the Security Council meeting, has been barred from the international investigations into the attacks.

Supporting Russia’s urgent call for an UN-led international investigation, Zhang said: “Any deliberate sabotage of transboundary infrastructure is a malicious act. Failure to find out why it happened and who is behind the destruction will send a wrong signal to those with ill intentions and make them believe that they can get away with whatever they do.”

He also made an apparent reference to a report on February 8 by journalist Seymour Hersh, claiming that American navy divers planted remotely triggered explosives during a Nato maritime exercise – Baltic Operation 22 – which later damaged the Russian-operated pipelines.