Underwater Telecommunications Cables in the Context of the Security of the European Union

Abstract

Underwater telecommunications cables in the context of the European Union’s security is tackled in this article. It is asserted that the importance of the underwater cables is diminished in mass conscience, though nowadays underwater telecommunications cables carry 99% of information and huge amount of data from diplomatic, political, financial to economic, social, cultural spheres of life.

The aim of the article is to investigate the problems of security, which are connected with development and exploitation of the undersea cables in the EU, and constituteone of its central geopolitical problems.

It is substantinated that the Internet is fully dependent on underwater cables. The global communication, which takes place nowadays, is impossible without the network of underwater cables. Its security is wholly dependent on them. Because cables lie at the bottom of seas and oceans, come across national borders and are often hidden in the ground, they have frequently been forgotten and received limited attention from policy makers. Sparked by Russian naval activity since 2014, when its submarines examined the waters of the North Atlantic, just the places where underwater cables have been laid, and geopolitical shockwaves sent by the 2022 by Russian-Ukrainian war, vulnerability of maritime infrastructures, is now receiving growing public and policy attention. The importance of the underwater cable network in global connectivity, the digital economy, and military operations is highlighted.

It is concluded that Ukraine is a maritime state, so the return of the Crimea and other costal territories currently occupied by Russian aggressors will greatly increase Ukrainian opportunities to gain access to underwater telecommunications cables that will run along the bottom of the Black Sea. This will bring it even closer to cooperation with EU and joining this regional organisation.