Linking up with business on undersea cables - How Australia, the United States and Japan can better cooperate with the private sector on cables in a more contested Indo-Pacific

In May 2023, the Quad nese telecommunications companies and Bei- launched its Partnership for Cable Connectiv- jing’s expanding influence through its Belt and ity and Resilience with the intention to “bring Road Initiative, shortly after taking over the together public and private sector actors to Coral Sea Cable project in 2018, DFAT announced address gaps in the infrastructure and coordi- a new. [...] in grant funds drawn from Australia’s existing The most recent announcement on cable pro- aid allocation.20 The Facility has made multiple jects in the Pacific came in October 2023 when investments across the Pacific ranging from Australia and the United States announced the energy, water, transport, and telecommunica- Hawaiki Nui cable and the South Pacific Connect tions.21 cable initiative.26 Wo. [...] Improving the interactions projects in the Pacific over recent years, coupled between governments and the private sector is with the long-term nature of delivering this in the interests of both parties. [...] Align government and industry visions commonly take a different perspective on how to regarding the development of the global cable structure the undersea cable architecture, how to architecture, security and supply “de-risk” communication and data flows, and the 2. [...] Digicel Pacific does command a large market Secondly, government and industry can differ in share, Chinese companies like China Mobile, their threat perceptions and responses to secur- ZTE and Huawei can continue to operate, with ing the cable network.37 In terms of addressing the associated risks of espionage, interference the risk posed by the CCP accessing data on and coercion.