Digital Silk Road

Intercontinental fiber optic internet networks are opening a new front in the US-China competition.

On March 1, 2024, Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of Rossiya Segodnya Media Group and Russia Today (RT) television, published the audio recording of German officers discussing plans to attack the Crimean Bridge. In this news, the echoes of Russia listening to a conference attended by high-ranking German officers and publishing the audio recordings still continue.

After the incident that caused an earthquake in Germany, a confession-like statement came from German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. The German minister shared the first results of the investigation launched after the incident at the press conference held in the capital Berlin.

Pistorius said that a German soldier who attended the aviation fair held in Singapore did not use the WebEx platform used in secret meetings to participate in the teleconference in question, but instead used an unsecured line at the hotel where he was staying.

Stating that the leaks in question were caused by the military's 'personal error', Pistorius said, "Not all participants complied with safe search procedures as intended." said.

Russia Today Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan published 38-minute audio recordings of the meeting between German military officials and Ukrainian officials regarding the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles.

In the audio recordings, it is stated that the participants of the meeting discussed issues regarding the delivery of missiles, as well as the training of military targets and Ukrainian soldiers, if German Chancellor Olaf Scholz approves.

In the audio recordings, it is stated that one of the targets was the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea, annexed by Russia, and the Russian mainland.

Our subject; This is the line in which the speech that is the subject of the media report was made.

Webex is a video conferencing program that can be used via website, desktop and mobile devices. Webex lets you hold meetings in your office, at home, or on the go. Video conferencing program Webex enables employees and business owners to be more productive with HD video and audio quality.

One World, One Family, One Future

While increasing competition and struggle for influence between Washington and Beijing in many areas are on the agenda, the world's second largest economy will be at the 18th G20 Leaders Summit hosted by India on 9-10 September 2023 with the main theme of "One World, One Family, One Future". A step has been taken that will worry China.

At the summit, India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, Germany, Italy and the European Union (EU) were involved in establishing the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, with the aim of helping to increase trade, provide energy resources and develop digital connectivity. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the EU and

While the countries that signed the memorandum did not make a binding financial commitment, they agreed to prepare an "action plan" for the establishment of the corridor within 2 months. Although the memorandum of agreement sets out the political commitments of the participants, it does not create any rights or obligations under international law, meaning that signatory countries are not necessarily bound by it.

While negotiations regarding the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which will also include energy transmission infrastructure, have been continuing between the relevant countries for months, it is expected that the studies will continue on a more official basis with the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

While the corridor includes ports and rail networks, as well as pipelines for green hydrogen and new high-performance data connections, analysts say that although the United States is not included in the corridor, China stands out as an alternative partner and investor for developing countries in the G20 group, and China's focus on global infrastructure. He states that he is trying to resist the pressure of the Belt and Road.

The new corridor is aimed to increase efficiency, reduce transportation time and fuel costs, create new job opportunities and increase trade volume through transit routes.

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor is planned to consist of two separate corridors: the Eastern corridor connecting India to West Asia/Middle East and the Northern corridor connecting West Asia/Middle East to Europe.

The project, which is likened to the Old Spice Road, starts from Mumbai, India, by sea to the port in Dubai, UAE, and from there to Al Gheweifat district by rail. It then passes through the Haradh district of Saudi Arabia and the city of Riyadh, and extends to Jordan and from there to the Israeli port city of Haifa. It is envisaged that the products will be taken from Haifa to the Piraeus Port of Greece by sea, and from there they will be transported to Europe by land.

The feasibility of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which was introduced as a multinational railway and maritime project that will connect the Indo-Pacific Region to the Middle East and Europe, has become questionable today due to high costs.

Washington is trying to control the internet networks connecting Asia and Europe with the "Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe 6" (SEA-ME-WE 6) project against China's "Pakistan-East Africa-Europe Connection" (PEACE) project. is in search of.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his statement during his visit to African countries, stated that financing will be provided for the undersea fiber optic internet cable infrastructure connecting Asia and Europe within the scope of the "Global Infrastructure Partnership Initiative" (PGII) announced by President Joe Biden at the G7 Summit. .

The $600 million SEA-ME-WE 6 project, undertaken by the US telecommunications company SubCom, is planned to reach France by starting from Singapore in Southeast Asia, traveling westwards through the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Mediterranean. It envisages the establishment of a 1200 kilometer submarine cable network.

Intercontinental fiber optic internet networks

The geostrategic and technological competition between the world's two largest economies, the USA and China, is also reflected in rival proposals and projects for the establishment of intercontinental fiber optic internet networks.

With the project, it is planned to provide internet infrastructure to Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France.

The network, which will consist of 10 fiber cable pairs with a data carrying capacity of 12.6 terabytes per second, offers the option of connecting lines to other countries on the route.

The network is aimed to be completed and put into service in the first quarter of 2025.

The project creates an alternative route to the network infrastructure called "Pakistan-East Africa-Europe Connection" (PEACE), which is carried out within the scope of the "Digital Silk Road" project, which is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Intercontinental fiber optic networks constitute a key infrastructure element due to the central role of the Internet and related technologies in global communications and economy.

Approximately 95 percent of intercontinental data traffic is carried via submarine fiber optic cables. 380 undersea fiber internet cables around the world are connected to the land through approximately 1000 coastal destination stations. Countries are looking to increase capacity in this area, as having a small number of cables reach many land points risks making networks fragile and insecure.

The rise of China and the PEACE project

With its rising economic and technological power, China has emerged as a new actor leading the creation of the intercontinental fiber optic internet infrastructure, in which several US companies and their Western partners have a say. Beijing aims to provide 60 percent of the world's fiber optic infrastructure by 2025 with the projects it has developed in this field.

The PEACE project, which aims to connect Pakistan, East Africa and Europe, stands out as one of the most important breakthroughs in this field.

The 15 thousand kilometer submarine cable network, which starts from two source points in the Karachi Port in the east of Pakistan and the Gwadar Port built by China in the west, crosses the Arabian Sea and ends in Somalia, Kenya and the island country of the Seychelles in East Africa. The network, which crosses the Red Sea from Djibouti to Egypt, extends to Southern Cyprus in the east of the Mediterranean and Malta and France in the west.

Huawei Marine, a subsidiary of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, is the main contractor of the 425 million dollar project.