Inside India’s big plan to counter China on seabed battlefront

As Yemen’s Houthi rebels intensified their attack in the Gulf of Aden in February of 2024, senior security officials 3,000 miles away in New Delhi were in a bit of panic. The four communications cables connecting Asia to Europe had been damaged in the offensive. It turned out that the impact wasn’t significant, as the telecom companies could route traffic through other subsea cables.

The following month, officials at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), the apex body on all matters related to security, held a meeting with India’s top telcos, including Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Communications.

“What if the nightmare comes true: what if all cables coming from Strait of Bab el-Mandeb between Yemen and Africa towards India are disconnected?” a top security official asked the participating companies.

“We will route it through the east,” a telco executive responded, suggesting that the threat was manageable.