Australia has launched a new ‘Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre’ for Indo-Pacific subsea cable projects on Monday that also serves as the latest initiative by the Quad alliance of Australia, India Japan and the US to limit China’s influence in the Pacific Islands region.
The centre was announced by Australian foreign minister Penny Wong in Tokyo, where Quad foreign ministers held their latest meeting.
According to a statement from Wong, Australia will invest more than AUD18 million (US$11.8 million) over the next four years in the centre, which will be tasked with commissioning “research and analysis to support Indo-Pacific governments with policy development, regulations and decision-making regarding undersea cables”, as well as providing technical assistance and training.
Wong also said the centre will “share information and host dialogues to strengthen engagement between Indo-Pacific governments and industry.”
The Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre – which is under the Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and will be staffed by Australian civil servants – is part of the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, which was announced in May 2023.
Under that partnership, Quad foreign ministers committed to “improving the [Indo-Pacific] region’s connectivity through the development of resilient infrastructure”, and pledged to “strengthen cable systems in the Indo-Pacific, drawing on Quad countries’ world-class expertise in manufacturing, delivering and maintaining cable infrastructure.”
While Wong said the new centre is meant to “help ensure undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific are resilient and all countries can benefit from reliable connectivity and the growth of the digital economy,” she also said that it’s “an important demonstration of the Quad's delivery in the region, responding to the Indo-Pacific's most pressing challenges.”
One of the biggest challenges identified by the Quad is China’s moves to exert more influence in the region, particularly in regards to telecoms and emerging technologies.
Subsea cable face-off in the Pacific
The US government has been warning Pacific island nations since at least 2020 that discounted subsea cables from Chinese companies pose a security threat to the region.
Reuters reported in 2022 that Beijing sent letters to ten Pacific island nations proposing a five-year development plan involving cooperation on policing, security and data communications. Huawei has bid for numerous telecoms infrastructure projects in the Pacific islands, including subsea cables and mobile networks, only to be thwarted by the US and Australia with rival bids on the grounds that Huawei’s equipment is a potential security risk.
The July 29 statement from Quad ministers tied the subsea cable supplier issue to the broader issue of boosting cybersecurity in the Indo-Pacific region, which it said included “supply chain security and resilience of critical sectors and …the protection of critical infrastructure including secure commercial undersea cables from trusted vendors.”
In January this year, the US warned Pacific island nations that they would lose access to Western-funded undersea cables if they used Chinese equipment to connect to them.
According to Australian Financial Review, China has invested in or built over 65 subsea cables worldwide since 2010. Meanwhile, the report said, Australia alone has invested more than AUD350 million in subsea cable projects in the Pacific and Timor-Leste since 2018.
Recent Indo-Pacific subsea cable projects with Australian and/or Quad backing include the 2,250-km East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS) connecting the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati and Nauru. That project was originally funded by World Bank and Asian Development Bank, with China’s HMN Technologies winning the bid to build it in 2020. FSM, Kiribati and Nauru rejected the offer a year later under pressure from the US government. As of last year, the EMCS is now being funded with grants from Australia, Japan and the US, with the supply contract going to Japan’s NEC.
In October 2023, when Google Cloud announced its South Pacific Connect initiative to build two subsea cables connecting Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia and the US, Australia and the US issued a joint statement saying they would contribute funding for the project.
Since then, Google has expanded that project to include the central Pacific Connect initiative with two new cables connecting Guam with Fiji and French Polynesia. Google expanded the project further in April with the North Pacific Connect initiative that will see a new subsea cable connecting Japan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and Guam. The North Pacific Connect initiative will also see Google extend its private Taiwan-Philippines-US (TPU) cable to the CNMI.
The US and Japan issued a joint statement in April saying they supported the North Pacific Connect initiative and planned to “collaborate with like-minded partners to build trusted and more resilient networks and intend to contribute funds to provide subsea cables in the Pacific region, including $16 million towards cable systems for the Federated States of Micronesia and Tuvalu.”
Last month, Australia and New Zealand agreed to construct a new cable connecting Tonga to the trans-Pacific Hawaiki Cable that links Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Oregon on the US West Coast.