17 Nations Launch GUIDE Undersea Cable Security Framework

By Telecom Review Asia
June 2, 2026

Seventeen countries are collaborating to safeguard critical underwater infrastructure, aiming to protect subsea telecommunications and energy cables from potential attacks. Countries participating in GUIDE include Singapore, Australia, Britain, Brunei, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, Sweden, and Thailand.

The Guiding Principles for Underwater Infrastructure Defence Exchanges (GUIDE), initiated by Singapore, was launched on May 30 during the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. As the first cross-regional framework addressing undersea security challenges, GUIDE will facilitate information sharing to support early warning of security incidents.

This voluntary framework, which is neither legally nor financially binding, enables the exchange of best practices and technical knowledge. It may also enhance incident and crisis response capabilities if required.

The Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) stated that recent incidents involving damage to subsea telecommunications or energy cables and pipelines have highlighted the vulnerabilities of critical underwater infrastructure. These incidents also demonstrate the challenges of responding beyond territorial waters, including issues related to attribution, jurisdiction, and enforcement.

MINDEF welcomed the growing attention from governments, private industry, and international and multilateral organizations toward developing secure, reliable, and resilient critical underwater infrastructure, as well as enhancing multinational and multi-stakeholder cooperation in incident response.

At the launch of GUIDE on May 30, Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing noted that the 2025 Shangri-La Dialogue included substantive discussions regarding the growing importance of critical underwater infrastructure. He said:

If we are honest with ourselves, we will know that we have quite a lot of work to do to establish the international norms on how we can lay those critical infrastructure… but, more importantly, how to maintain them and how to prevent people from disrupting them.

Mr. Chan stated that although GUIDE countries may not possess all the solutions, they are committed to collaborative efforts to establish international norms for constructing, maintaining, and protecting critical underwater infrastructure.

Read more…