Australia urged to lead Indo-Pacific cable shield as hybrid war risks rise

AI Summary

A new report highlights Australia's strategic opportunity to become the Indo-Pacific's preferred submarine cable hub amidst rising hybrid warfare risks in the region. The report emphasizes economic and national security threats linked to cable vulnerabilities across busy underwater routes.

The cables that link Australia with the rest of the world lie mostly unseen, stretched across the seabed and threaded through some of the Indo-Pacific’s busiest and most contested waters. This vulnerability could also become a strategic advantage, a new report says, urging Australia to position itself as an “Indo-Pacific preferred cable hub” as threats to submarine cables raise economic and national security risks across the region. That view is echoed by regional analysts, who say Canberra...