Alphabet, Google's parent company, has announced plans to build an undersea cable network traversing "smaller countries" in the Pacific Ocean, including Indonesia's neighbors, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea.

The plan to construct this undersea cable, which will connect the United States to Australia through the Pacific Ocean, is scheduled to be announced in the U.S. on Wednesday (10/25/2023) local time, as reported by officials in the U.S. cited by Reuters.

The agreement to construct this undersea cable network will expand Google's commercial undersea cable network project to regions encompassing countries such as Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to pay a visit to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden. Both governments will make financial contributions to Google's undersea cable project.

The Australian government will contribute $50 million, while the U.S. will contribute $15 million.

Nations in the Pacific Ocean region have garnered the attention of both China and the United States. These two rivaling nations are vying to engage with Pacific island nations to forge partnerships in both military and infrastructure development.

President Joe Biden is also determined to ensure that the United States maintains a leading role in the telecommunications industry, as control over the telecommunications industry is considered a key national security issue linked to monitoring the flow of information worldwide.

Currently, Google is in the process of laying fiber optic cables that pass through Taiwan to connect the Philippines and the United States.

As part of the telecommunications infrastructure project in the Pacific island nations, the U.S. will also collaborate with local governments to enhance cybersecurity, including aiding in data backup to the global cloud network.