Why some sea incidents are more important than others

ON Tuesday (April 28), alarms were raised across the Middle East and the West when the Iranian navy fired warning shots and later boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged commercial vessel, the Maersk Tigris, in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian navy reportedly took these measures after the ship refused to comply with orders while in Iranian waters. The incident comes as the United States and Iran are on a path toward normalization and the Obama administration is looking to lift some sanctions once a final deal is reached. US Naval Forces Central Command reportedly sent a US destroyer and an aircraft to monitor the situation following a distress call from the cargo vessel, which is owned by the US-based company Oaktree Capital. The ship was last reported stationary outside Bandar Abbas port.

Also on Tuesday, another confrontation took place at sea, thousands of kilometers to the north. Finland’s navy fired grenade-size underwater charges as a warning to a suspected foreign submarine allegedly located near Helsinki. Although the Finnish defense minister did not directly blame Russia’s military for the intrusion into Finland’s waters, reported Russian incursions into both territorial waters and airspace of countries in the region have increased over the past year. Finland’s foreign policy is built on the principle of nonalignment, and the country maintained its independence throughout the Cold War by remaining neutral. The conflict in Ukraine, however, has reignited debates about Finland’s security orientation and relationship with NATO. In fact, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement April 12 conveying its concern over a joint article penned by officials from Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland calling for greater regional defense cooperation.