“There’s no way that we can have NATO presence along also these thousands of kilometers of undersea infrastructure,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after chairing the meeting.
“But we can be better at collecting … intelligence, sharing information, connecting the dots, because also in the private sector there is a lot of information” about ship movements and maritime surveillance, he added. Rather than trying to watch it all, the new center and NATO allies are focusing on high-risk areas. Pipelines in shallow waters that can easily be reached by divers are considerably vulnerable. Potential damage to data cables can be mitigated more easily by simply dropping in more cables.“To support the center, allies have decided to set up a critical undersea infrastructure network, bringing together NATO, allies and private sector actors.