{"id":21033,"date":"2025-12-13T13:14:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/google-to-build-subsea-cables-in-papua-new-guinea-under-australia-defence-treaty\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:11","slug":"google-to-build-subsea-cables-in-papua-new-guinea-under-australia-defence-treaty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/google-to-build-subsea-cables-in-papua-new-guinea-under-australia-defence-treaty\/","title":{"rendered":"Google to build subsea cables in Papua New Guinea under Australia defence treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian and United States (US) military strategists view resource-rich but largely underdeveloped Papua New Guinea (PNG) as having a prized location north of Australia at a time when China is boosting its influence in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The $120-million effort will link northern and southern Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville autonomous region with high-capacity cables, Peter Tsiamalili, PNG’s Acting Minister for Information and Communications Technology, said on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The entire investment (is) funded through Australia’s commitments under the Pukpuk Treaty,” he said in a statement, referring to a mutual defence pact signed in October.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The project reflected both nations’ shared commitment to advance digital security, regional stability, and national development, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The subsea cables will be built by Google<\/span>, the statement said, adding that Tsiamalili met Australian and US diplomats <\/span>to discuss the project<\/span> at Google’s Australian office this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Google Australia Spokesperson declined to comment on the PNG project.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia’s foreign affairs department said on Saturday the cables will lower internet prices for consumers, support economic growth and increase <\/span>education<\/span> opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cables will position PNG to attract investment from hyper-scalers and global digital enterprises, said Tsiamalili, who is also the Police Minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Pukpuk Treaty gives Australian defence personnel access to PNG communications systems, including satellite stations and cables. The US is also strengthening military ties with PNG, signing a defence co-operation pact in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia and the US have funded various subsea cables across the Pacific Islands in recent years to block<\/span> a <\/span>push <\/span>by China<\/span> to build the vital communication links, <\/span>viewed by<\/span> Canberra as a security risk.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PNG’s domestic submarine cable was built by China’s Huawei in 2018 and financed by a loan from China’s EXIM bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Australia has committed over $300 million to support undersea cable connectivity across the Pacific and Timor-Leste, including the Coral Sea Cable between Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia,” an Australian Foreign Affairs official said in a statement to <\/span>Reuters<\/span><\/em> on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia is expected <\/span>to also finance a new international cable to PNG<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Google said last month it planned to build a data hub on Australia’s Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island, another strategic defence location, with new cables linking the island <\/span>with<\/span> Australian cities <\/span>hosting<\/span> key defence bases also used by the US military.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two more cable systems will extend westwards to Africa and Asia, to “deepen the resilience” of Indian Ocean internet infrastructure, Google said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13512,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21033","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Alphabet's Google will build three subsea cables in Papua New Guinea, which the largest Pacific Island nation said was funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty, in a key upgrade to its digital backbone.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Alphabet's Google will build three subsea cables in Papua New Guinea, which the largest Pacific Island nation said was funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty, in a key upgrade to its digital backbone.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24852,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21033\/revisions\/24852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}