Taiwan, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are working together to install undersea cables as a demonstration of digital solidarity, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Blinken talked about the cooperation in a speech he delivered at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
He said that the US International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy launched by the US Department of State “treats digital solidarity as our North Star.”
Photo: AP
“Solidarity informs our approach not only to digital technologies, but to all key foundational technologies,” Blinken said.
Under the strategy, the US is to work with international partners “to shape the design, development, governance, and use of cyberspace and digital technologies,” the US Department of State said on Monday.
As part of the effort, the US has established partnerships with Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to install and operate “a cable that will connect up to 100,000 people across the spread-out Pacific Islands,” as well as other similar projects in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
If undersea cables are disrupted or compromised, it could lead to isolation, national security risks or huge economic losses as they carry more than 95 percent of the world’s digital traffic across the ocean floor, he added.
Separately, Taiwan has signed four memorandums of understanding (MOU) with three nations under the New Southbound Policy to cooperate on transportation security, science, product assessment and disaster research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan signed an MOU with Australia on April 2 to expand cooperation on the safety of maritime and railway transportation, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Peter Lan (藍夏禮) told a news conference.
Under the MOU, the two sides are to work together on accident investigation, information security and technical training, he said.
Taipei and Canberra on Monday signed another MOU to strengthen cooperation on science and research in fields such as information and communication technology, supply chain resilience, biotechnology and net-zero transformation, Lan said.
On the same day, Taiwan signed an MOU with the Philippines to boost bilateral exchanges and share experiences on landslide and debris flow disasters, he said.
Taiwan last week signed an MOU with Indonesia on cooperation on standardization and conformity assessments, he added.
The MOU would help both sides better understand standards, regulations and certification regarding commodities to lower trade barriers and create a more convenient trade environment for businesses in the two nations, Lan said.
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