The Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in February, 2025 will be held at :

Correct — option (2), Nigeria.

The International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit was held in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in late February 2025. On the exam date, 2 February 2025, it was still ahead.

Nigeria's Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy organised the two-day event in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC).

The summit was the first in-person meeting of the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, which ITU formed with the ICPC in late 2024. The body agreed its declaration at Abuja on 26 February 2025.

The idea to remember: February 2025 cable resilience summit: Abuja, Nigeria, organised with ITU and ICPC.

Why the others are wrong

• (1)
  Switzerland — Switzerland comes in through a partner. ITU, which co-organised the summit, has its headquarters in Geneva.

  The summit itself was hosted by Nigeria's Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and held in Abuja, according to ITU's press release of 27 February 2025.

• (3)
  France — France hosted a different summit that month: the AI Action Summit in Paris on 10–11 February 2025, co-chaired by France and India.

  The submarine cable resilience summit was a separate event, held in Abuja, Nigeria, with ITU and the International Cable Protection Committee as partners.

• (4)
  Armenia — Armenia is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus, with its capital at Yerevan. It was not the host.

  The host was Nigeria. ITU's release of 27 February 2025 names Abuja, Nigeria as the venue and Nigeria's communications ministry as the organiser, with ITU and the ICPC.

Submarine telecommunications cables are fibre-optic lines laid on the seabed, mostly linking countries and continents. ITU says more than 99% of international data traffic travels over about 500 such cables, spanning over 1.7 million km.

Cables fail: ITU counts an average of 150 to 200 faults reported worldwide each year. Resilience means keeping connectivity alive through those faults.

The Abuja declaration has eleven points. ITU's release highlights three of them: protect cables by identifying and mitigating risks, including natural events and accidental maritime damage; diversify routes and landings so no region is left isolated; and speed up the deployment of new cables and the repair of damaged ones.

Key facts

• The International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit was held in Abuja, Nigeria, in February 2025; ITU's press release on it is dated 27 February 2025.
• It was organised by Nigeria's Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy with ITU and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC).
• The International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, formed by ITU with the ICPC in late 2024, agreed its declaration at Abuja on 26 February 2025.
• At the February 2025 summit, the Advisory Body's co-chairs were Nigerian minister Bosun Tijani and Prof. Sandra Maximiano, Chair of Portugal's ANACOM.
• ITU says over 99% of international data traffic runs on about 500 submarine cables spanning over 1.7 million km, with 150–200 faults reported yearly.

Common traps

• Choosing Switzerland because ITU is headquartered in Geneva. ITU was a partner; the host was Nigeria, and the venue Abuja.
• Mixing up two February 2025 summits: Paris hosted the AI Action Summit on 10–11 February, while the submarine cable resilience summit met in Abuja.
• Treating the Advisory Body and the summit as the same thing. The body was formed in late 2024; the Abuja summit was its first in-person meeting.

UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2023 and 2018 here once those papers are published on this site.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, which met in person at Abuja in February 2025, was formed by the International Cable Protection Committee together with which organisation?

  • (a)International Telecommunication Union
  • (b)International Maritime Organization
  • (c)World Trade Organization
  • (d)International Seabed Authority
  Answer(1) — ITU formed the Advisory Body with the ICPC in late 2024. Option (2) is the UN agency for shipping; option (3) administers multilateral trade rules; option (4) regulates mineral activities on the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  At the February 2025 summit in Abuja, the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience formed working groups. Which of the following was one of their areas?

  • (a)Spectrum allocation for satellite broadband
  • (b)Timely deployment and repair of cables
  • (c)Taxation of cross-border data flows
  • (d)Licensing of deep-sea mining
  Answer(2) — ITU's release lists working groups on risk identification, monitoring and mitigation; connectivity and geographic diversity of landing points and routes; and timely deployment and repair of cables. Options (1), (3) and (4) are not among them.