MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The suspected foreign submarine observed in the Stockholm archipelago does not belong to the Dutch Navy, a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Defense said Monday.
"We have had a fleet in the Baltic Sea in line with international practice. Our vessels sailed to Tallinn late last week and they are now on their way home," Marloes Visser was quoted as saying by the Norwegian VG newspaper.
Answering VG's question of whether the Netherlands had control of all its vessels, Visser stated that "we can account for all".
The Swedish Armed Forces launched a major operation off the coast of Stockholm on Friday after receiving information, reportedly from a civilian, about the presence of an unknown underwater object in the region.
Earlier on Monday, a Russian Defense Ministry source told RIA Novosti that the unidentified object, suspected to be a foreign submarine, could belong to the Dutch Navy.
Earlier media reports suggested that the object sought by Sweden could be a damaged Russian submarine. A spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry denied the claims on Sunday, stating that "there have been no extraordinary, let alone emergency situations involving Russian military vessels".
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