Russia is known to have been involved in disrupting and sabotaging these networks since as early as 2014, researchers have flagged and U.S. officials recently told CNN they’d observed more worrying activity by Russia.
Countries signing the statement would demand network operators to have supply chain security and data security measures in place, and share information in case of incidents, the draft said.
The text was first reported on by MLex.
The New York declaration is an attempt to procure submarine cable networks from companies in allied countries — echoing the West’s efforts in past years to kick out Chinese companies from 5G infrastructure.
The concerns with Chinese equipment centers on the fear that booming Chinese suppliers are taking the market in a stranglehold.
While the list of competitors for submarine cable projects is long, the big fight is often between U.S. provider SubCom, Europe’s Alcatel Submarine Networks (owned by Nokia) and HMN Tech in China, as well as others like Prysmian (Italy) and Nexans (France), Japan’s NEC and China’s ZTT. HMN Tech is one of the fastest-growing companies in the market. It was known as Huawei Marine Networks until 2020, when it was taken over by Hengtong Group and changed its brand name.
