The United States, the European Union and other allies are preparing a plan to increase the security of underwater communications networks, which also includes pushing Chinese suppliers out of projects to build them.
The US is drafting a "Joint New York Declaration" to be signed later this month at the UN General Assembly, September 22-25. EU member states give their approval to join the commitment.
Communication cables carry huge flows of data around the world and are essential to the functioning of the global economy. But they are also vulnerable to the threat of eavesdropping data directly from the pipes - although this is difficult and expensive - sabotage, where cables are cut or otherwise damaged, and supply chain disruptions.
Russia has been known to be involved in disrupting and sabotaging these networks since 2014, researchers noted, and U.S. officials recently told CNN that they have observed even more troubling activity from Russia.
Signatories will require network operators to have measures in place for supply chain security and data security, and to share information in the event of incidents, the draft said.
The New York declaration is an attempt to buy undersea cable networks from companies in allied countries — a repeat of Western efforts in years past to insulate Chinese companies from 5G infrastructure.
Concerns about Chinese equipment center on concerns that booming Chinese suppliers are capturing the market.
While the list of competitors for submarine cable projects is long, the big battle is often between US supplier SubCom, Europe's Alcatel Submarine Networks (owned by Nokia) and China's HMN Tech, as well as others such as Prysmian (Italy) and Nexans (France ), Japan's NEC and China's ZTT. HMN Tech is one of the fastest growing companies in the market. It was known as Huawei Marine Networks until 2020, when it was acquired by Hengtong Group and rebranded.
Beijing's control of the supply chain means the West will rely on equipment that China can at any moment stop supplying, or suppliers can be ordered by the Chinese government to shut down infrastructure.
The draft says the countries will promote "reliable and secure cable components and services".
They also want to "encourage submarine cable network service providers and operations and support providers to have transparent ownership structures, partnerships and corporate governance" - a complaint often associated with Chinese technology firms with opaque structures or ties to organizations , subordinate to the government.
The EU is going through an internal process to get permission from the national governments of its member countries to sign the agreement at the UN meeting. The European Commission should be given permission to sign on their behalf at a meeting next week.
Subsea infrastructure is a vulnerability that the industry is "very keen to address," said Christian von Stamm Jonasson, a consultant at Hanbury Strategy. The details would need "careful consideration ... so as not to create unnecessary trade barriers," he added. I BGNES
