Italian Navy’s Arsenal in Venice - historical site of the Institute of Maritime Military Studies - is hosting the 14th edition of the 'Trans - Regional Sea Power Symposium' (T-RSS), a biannual international maritime forum.
The event is attended by over 300 delegations including allied and partner navies (67 military navies), international organisations, academia, industrial and cultural players/realities, and representatives of the various maritime clusters. All the stakeholders focus on a transversal dialogue dedicated to maritime issues. Italy is fostering its vision of ‘Global Mediterranean’ as centre of gravity between diverse geostrategic areas that are only apparently distant, yet extraordinarily interconnected.
The main theme of this edition is the underwater environment, as exemplified by the title 'A Spotlight on the Depths: The Underwater as the New Frontier for Humankind'.
Today, the underwater environment is a very complex and not clearly defined space, subject to various disputes between states and 'attention' even from other entities that are not necessarily governmental.
Exploration of the seabed is an unavoidable necessity, considering that waters cover about 70% of the planet's surface and that the underwater dimension hosts strategic infrastructures and energy resources - critical metals and raw materials (cobalt, manganese, nickel, etc.), data centres and data traffic backbones (1.6 million kilometres of underwater cables, of which 375,000 in the Mediterranean) - and a priceless archaeological heritage.
It has been estimated that by 2030 the market related to underwater activities will expand to €400 billion. The Venice 2024 Symposium aims to highlight the importance that global players attach to this environment and to stimulate some insights into the main opportunities and challenges that will inevitably arise from the intense exploration of the underwater world.
This year's panels are three and cover as many specific themes:
1) "Preserving the underwater", an analysis of the opportunities and risks/criticalities associated with the sustainable development of the underwater environment.
2) "Safeguarding the underwater", focus on the state of the art of underwater technology.
3) 'Framing the underwater', a discussion on the need for shared regulations, at national and international level, governing interactions in the underwater dimension.
The Symposium was inaugurated with a ceremony held on Tuesday 8 October in the Sala Squadratori at the Venice Arsenal in the presence of the Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto, and the Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, Admiral Enrico Credendino.
For the occasion, the Bucintoro Hall hosted the exhibition 'Deep Blue: The Italian Navy in the Underwater Dimension', which will be open to the public from 11 to 20 October as part of the Venice Naval History Museum's exhibition itinerary. The immersive, multimedia exhibition will take visitors on a journey through images, videos, sounds and digital infographics. "Deep Blue" stems from the Navy's commitment to highlighting the underwater dimension as a new frontier for humanity, drawing a parallel with a "new universe waiting to be explored beneath the surface of the water".
In this context, we would like to mention the activity being carried out in La Spezia by the Polo Nazionale della Dimensione Subacquea (PNS – National Underwater Technology Hub), a technological incubator that was created because of cooperation between the Navy, Defence and other Ministries, public and private companies, and the academic and scientific world. Within the PNS, the first 8 calls for proposals have already been launched for the funding of as many research projects: four of these will go to contract shortly. The aim is to grow to 12-15 calls next year and to channel a larger volume of public (governmental) resources, estimated, €50 million per year in the initial phase.