At UN, Pakistan raises 2022 Nord Stream sabotage

Nearly three years since the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which transported Russian gas to Europe, Pakistan is calling for ensuring that deliberate targeting of trans-national infrastructure would be addressed through proper scrutiny and accountability.

"The deliberate sabotage in September 2022 of Nord Stream offshore natural gas pipelines in international waters was an alarming and reprehensible act," Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Between September 26 and 29, 2022, several explosions were recorded, causing ruptures and leaks in three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. These explosions were investigated by Danish, German, and Swedish officials as an act of sabotage.

"Pakistan is seriously concerned on premeditated and deliberate attacks against critical energy and civilian infrastructure of other States, including those carried out by terrorist entities," Ambassador Jadoon said while participating in a debate on Nord Stream under agenda Item 'Threats to International Peace and Security'.

"An attack on these facilities and critical infrastructure undermines commercial operation of such entities and also creates a dangerous precedent — that must be effectively addressed," he added.

In this regard, the Pakistani envoy underscored the need for ensuring the safety and security of critical civilian and energy infrastructure especially that of transnational nature was not jeopardized during hostilities.

"This requires the enforcement of applicable international law and the strengthening of international cooperative frameworks to deal with such attacks."

Also, he said, accountability for all such incidents and deliberate attacks must be ensured by bringing the perpetrators to justice.

"In this context, we have taken note of the progress made by the relevant German authorities including the arrest of one suspect. We also note that Germany's national investigations are still ongoing."

Pakistan, he added, hopes that the inquires and investigations, once concluded to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, would help establish facts, address legitimate concerns of all those affected by it, and reinforce the crucial norm that all such attacks will be met with proper scrutiny and accountability in a transparent, objective manner and legally sound.

In conclusion, Ambassador Jadoon reiterated Pakistan's call for identifying and holding those responsible for this attack to account in order to prevent such attacks in the future.

Opening the debate, Miroslav Jenca, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said that the destruction of pipelines had heightened concerns about the safety and security of critical civilian infrastructure "at a time of heightened tensions in the region".

He noted that the incident has also fueled speculation over the past years, reiterating that the United Nations has no additional details of events and is not in a position to verify or confirm any claims or reports regarding the matter.

Recalling that four leaks were reported in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines between 26 and 29 September 2022, he said the pipelines — located in international waters within the Swedish and Danish exclusive economic zones in the Baltic Sea — were not operational at the time but contained several hundred million cubic metres of natural gas.

According to a 2025 study coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this incident resulted in the planet's largest human-caused release of methane.

It concluded that the plausible range of the Nord Stream leak was anywhere from 445,000 to 485,000 tons — "more than twice as much as previously thought". According to the experts, "the Nord Stream leak contributed as much to global warming as would have 8 million cars driven for a year", he said, citing the incident as "an important reminder of the environmental impact on global warming caused by the destruction of critical infrastructure".

Jenca noted that Danish, German and Swedish authorities have provided regular updates on their separate national investigations. As part of this investigation, the Federal Public Prosecutor General of Germany announced that a Ukrainian national was arrested in Italy on 21 August, based on a European arrest warrant requested by Germany.