The growing interconnection of the world highlights the urgent need to develop structural and integrated policies for the underwater domain, recognizing it as a fundamental dimension of collective security. This means strengthening the ability to safeguard critical infrastructure, whose security has become indispensable for international stability and resilience, and establishing a clear and shared regulatory framework to govern its safeguarding and safe use. 

In this context, underwater infrastructure, and in particular subsea cables, constitutes the backbone of the digital economy, enabling internet, financial, and other communications that are at times essential for global stability. Safeguarding these forms of communication represents a strategic asset, turning cables from simple technical infrastructure into fundamental pillars of international security and resilience. Yet their integrity remains exposed to risks and threats. 

As maritime nations strategically located in the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific, Italy and the Philippines share an interest in ensuring the safeguarding of the underwater domain and its critical infrastructure. In today’s increasingly complex and interconnected geopolitical context, this requires integrated policies, a coherent regulatory framework, multilateral approaches, and cooperative instruments that reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience, including through closer collaboration and the sharing of best practices. 

Against this backdrop, the Stratbase Institute, in partnership with the Italian Embassy in the Philippines and Fincantieri, hosted a forum entitled “The Underwater Dimension as a New Frontier of Security and Cooperation: Common Challenges and Regional Specificities in the Dialogue between Italy and the Indo-Pacific” on November 12, 2025, from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM at the 28/F The Studio, Makati Diamond Residences, Makati City. 

Promoted on the occasion of the celebration of the “National Unity and Armed Forces Day” (Italy, November 4), the conference convened key stakeholders from the diplomatic community, government, private sector, academia, civil society, and the international community to examine how safeguarding subsea infrastructure is essential to maintaining peace and stability from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indo-Pacific.