JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT Improving East Micronesia Telecommunications Connectivity
REPUBLIC OF NAURU
Government Information Office
For Release
Sunday, 12 December, 2021
JOINT MEDIA
STATEMENT
Improving East Micronesia
Telecommunications Connectivity
Senator The Hon. Marise Payne
Minister for Foreign Affairs and
Minister for Women, Australia
His Excellency David W. Panuelo
President of the Federated States
of Micronesia
His Excellency Yoshimasa
Hayashi
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Japan
His Excellency Taneti Maamau
President of the Republic of
Kiribati
His Excellency Lionel Aingimea
President of the Republic of
Nauru
The Honorable Antony J. Blinken
Secretary of State, United States
of America
Australia, Japan, and the United
States are committed to working in partnership with the Federated
States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, and Nauru to improve internet
connectivity to these three Pacific nations by providing funding to
build a new undersea cable.
The proposed undersea cable will
provide faster, higher quality, and more reliable and secure
communications to approximately 100,000 people across three
countries. This will support increased economic growth, drive
development opportunities, and help to improve living standards as
the region recovers from the severe impacts of COVID-19.
The new cable will connect Kosrae
(FSM), Nauru, and Tarawa (Kiribati) with the existing HANTRU-1
cable at Pohnpei (FSM), providing internet connectivity through a
submarine cable for the first time.
Improved connectivity and access to
digital technologies can provide significant economic and social
benefits and are key enablers of sustainable development. They also
help increase the availability of digital government services,
particularly in education and health, and provide businesses and
households with improved access to services, information and trade,
and employment opportunities.
This six-country collaboration
highlights our commitment to work together on critical
telecommunications infrastructure and contribute to reliable and
secure internet for the region.
We will continue to coordinate
closely with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to
ensure this project complements investments by these institutions
to enhance digital connectivity in FSM, Kiribati, and Nauru.
This is more than an infrastructure
investment. It represents an enduring partnership to deliver
practical and meaningful solutions at a time of unprecedented
economic and strategic challenges in our region. This project
builds on the strong foundations of trilateral collaboration
between Australia, Japan, and the United States in the
Indo-Pacific, including support for Palau's undersea cable.
It is a further demonstration of
our shared commitment to quality, transparent, fiscally
sustainable, catalytic infrastructure partnerships with, and
between, Pacific nations. These partnerships meet genuine needs,
respect sovereignty, and complement the Trilateral Infrastructure
Partnership and the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative.
Trilateral partners will continue to work together to promote an
open, inclusive and resilient region.