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Australia is expanding its subsea cable connections, linking more pathways to Asia to the west and across the South Pacific to the United States, aimed at reducing its risk of digital problems. AFP

Google has announced plans to enhance Australia's digital infrastructure and internet resilience across the Indo-Pacific region with an investment that includes new subsea cable systems.

Under the Australia Connect initiative, the Bosun subsea cable will link Darwin, Australia, to Christmas Island, which will then connect to Singapore.

Additionally, a new interlink cable will connect Melbourne, Perth, and Christmas Island, with Melbourne linking to the Honomoana cable system. It will establish a new service point between the U.S. and Asia as part of the Pacific Connect project.

The name "Bosun" was inspired by both the white-tailed tropicbird, the iconic bird of Christmas Island, and the nautical term for a ship's lead deckhand.

Christmas Island, located in the Indian Ocean, was an Australian external territory with a small population of just 1,250 residents. The island lies about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the west of the Australian mainland, and 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

The initiative is a joint venture involving Google and several major partners, such as Australian data center company NEXTDC, and Macquarie-backed telecommunications group SUBCO, and Vocus, along with the state and local governments of Darwin, Perth, and the Sunshine Coast.

"These new cable systems will not only expand and strengthen the resilience of Australia's own digital connectivity through new and diversified routes, but will also complement the Government's active work with industry and government partners to support secure, resilient and reliable connectivity across the Pacific," Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement.

Subco had earlier laid an undersea cable connecting Perth to Oman, with spurs extending to important locations, such as the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia and the Cocos Islands, where Australia was currently upgrading a runway to support surveillance aircraft for defense purposes, Reuters reported.

The Australian Defense Force has emphasized the strategic importance of the Cocos Islands for maritime surveillance, as China was expanding submarine activity in the Indian Ocean, which underscores the need for enhanced monitoring in the region.

Though located 900 kilometers (560 miles) away, Christmas Island was regarded as a close neighbor to the Cocos Islands.

Australia is expanding its subsea cable connections, linking more pathways to Asia to the west and across the South Pacific to the United States, aimed at reducing its risk of digital problems. The new cables will also link to a Pacific Islands network, connecting the U.S. and Australia through hubs in Fiji and French Polynesia. This network is built by Google and jointly funded by the United States.

The announcement of the cable coincides with the ongoing upgrades to airfields in northern Australia, where U.S. Marines will be joined by Japanese troops in a rotating deployment next year.