Europe

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5321003

Archived version

The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to "bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices, and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation," Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said.

The project will be known as "RISK," an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform, and knowledge building, he said at the seminar titled "Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum."

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"This is not a national project but rather a global partnership," Lin said, calling on stakeholders around the world to join the initiative.

The project is "an open, inclusive, and collaborative platform" to secure a future "where data flows freely and securely, where no nation is left behind, and where connectivity is treated as a public good, not a geopolitical weapon," he said.

At the seminar, a member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said that currently there are more than 600 operational or planned cables worldwide, stretching nearly 1.5 million kilometers.

"These are not just lines of data. They are the nervous system of democratic connectivity," which is under stress, he said.

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Between 2023 and 2025, there were 12 separate incidents that affected energy lines and undersea cables across the Baltic region, Kols said, adding that he believes they were "acts of sabotage."

Taiwan sits at a vital juncture of the Indo-Pacific's digital infrastructure and is a strategic hub for global connectivity, said Kols, who is from Latvia.

In recent years, Taiwan has repeatedly experienced the consequences of cable disruptions, in instances where local authorities have found damage to cables connecting its outlying islands, the minister said.

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