The East Micronesia Cable landed in Tarawa, Kiribati on 26 July 2025 with the international telecommunications cable now just months away from being ready for service.
The occasion was marked by a ceremony celebrating the floating in of the cable to the Tarawa landing site from the cable-laying ship, using a large ceremonial buoy. Kiribati President Taneti Maamau and the Minister for Information, Communications and Transport Alexander Teabo hosted the event alongside senior representatives of the Kiribati government and officials from the project’s partner governments.
Among those in attendance were Australia’s Special Envoy for the Pacific Ewen McDonald, Australia’s High Commissioner to Kiribati Mark Foxe, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Japan to the Republic of Kiribati Suzuki Hideyuki and Mr Michael Glees, Senior Development Adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Suva.
The AUD135 million (approximately USD90 million) East Micronesia Cable project is funded by Australia, Japan and the United States. It will deliver a 2,250-kilometre-long undersea cable and supporting infrastructure, connecting Tarawa in Kiribati, Nauru and the state of Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to the existing HANTRU-1 cable landing point in Pohnpei, FSM.
The project will improve the availability of digital government services and enable increased trade and employment opportunities. It will also enhance the countries’ resilience to climate change, supporting governments with disaster and climate preparedness while reducing the risk of outages during extreme weather events.
Ceremonial buoy events to mark the cable landings in Nauru and Kosrae will be held in the coming weeks. The cable is expected to be ready for service in November 2025.
