SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) – With financial help from Australia, Japan and the US, the Pacific island of Palau will build an undersea telecoms cable, said Canberra on Wednesday.
The $30-million project is a first of its kind to be financed under an infrastructure investment partnership in the region with the participation of the three countries, said foreign minister Marise Payne in a statement.
“We are very pleased to work alongside Japan and the United States to support Palau’s vision to strengthen its global internet connectivity,” she added.
According to the statement, the cable will connect Palau to a new cable spanning the Indo-Pacific region, from Singapore to the west coast of the United States.
In the wake of growing concerns over rising Chinese clout, Australia has stepped up engagement in the Pacific Island region. The infrastructure investment partnership of the three nations is seen as a bulwark against Chinese funding.
“Australia recently opened its first embassy in Palau,” Payne said as part of its Pacific Step-Up programme.
Canberra will donate $10 million to the project, including a $9-million construction loan.
It has already pledged A$1.44 billion (788 million pounds) in aid to the region in 2020-21, apart from A$2 billion through the infrastructure investment fund.
Two years ago, Australia agreed to fund construction of the Coral Sea cable system for the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. That replaced an earlier deal with China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to lay a cable via Sydney. Canberra feared that it would affect its broadband network.