Partnership funds Palau project

SYDNEY: Palau will build an undersea telecoms cable financed by Australia, Japan and the United States, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said yesterday.

It is the first project financed by the three nations under an infrastructure investment partnership in the region.

The cable will link Palau to a new cable spanning the IndoPacific region from Singapore to the west coast of the United States, Payne said.

Australia has stepped up engagement in the Pacific amid concerns over rising Chinese influence. In 2018, it agreed to fund the Coral Sea cable system for the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, replacing a deal the two nations had struck with Huawei Technologies. — Reuters