Following incidents of merchant ships allegedly damaging subsea cables by dragging their anchors, 17 countries have pledged to cooperate to safeguard such infrastructure.
The countries that signed the Guiding Principles for Underwater Infrastructure Defence Exchanges (GUIDE) framework are Australia, Brunei, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the UK.
Defence representatives of these states signed the agreement during the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on 30 May. Organised by The International Institute of Strategic Studies in Singapore since 2002, the defence summit aims to foster security cooperation across the Asia-Pacific.
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence said GUIDE reflects countries’ desire to collaborate on common security challenges that transcend geographical regions.
Singapore’s defence minister Chan Chun Sing said of GUIDE: “Today, the waterways are not just avenues for us to conduct our trade, but underneath those waters are also critical underwater infrastructure that connects our energy grid, our telecommunications grid. We don’t want a situation whereby such critical infrastructures are disrupted and all of us get the negative knock-on effect … any attack on one part of the network is an attack on the entire network.”
In one incident of subsea damage, Finnish authorities accused the container ship Newnew Polar Bear of damaging the Balticonnector natural gas pipeline on 8 October 2023, by dragging its anchor over the pipeline.
Investigators found a broken anchor in the water that matched the missing anchor from the ship, which has since been renamed “Belle Aries” and reflagged from Hong Kong to Panama.
In August 2024, Chinese authorities concluded an internal investigation and acknowledged that while “Newnew Polar Bear” had indeed damaged the pipeline, it was an accident caused by a severe storm, and not an act of sabotage.
Despite China’s assertion, Hong Kong authorities are now prosecuting Wan Wenguo, the Chinese captain of “Newnew Polar Bear” at the time of the incident. As the ship was Hong Kong-flagged at the time, the territory’s authorities are able to file charges; Wan is claiming trial.
More recently, on 30 March, a Chinese work barge, “Hai Hong Gong 66”, was suspected of damaging the Taiwan-Matsu Subsea Cable No. 3 off Dongyin, Taiwan, during a salvage operation. The crew was detained and the matter referred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has said it could resort to force if the island declares independence. (PL)
