The great submarine cable that has to unite Europe with Greenland

BrusselsEurope is already preparing for the end of the war in Ukraine. Once the conflict is over, the Arctic will be the new security scenario on which the great powers will focus, and especially the Russian threat, community sources state. "With Russia and China increasing their footprint and ambition, the Arctic has become the new frontline of global power competition," summarized the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, who insisted that this "new reality" has forced a rethink of European strategy and made security a priority.

The Russian threat is spreading like an oil slick across the polar region. Lately, Moscow has increased the presence of military forces on the Kola Peninsula, one of its main strategic assets because it hosts Russia's famous Northern Fleet and nuclear submarine forces. And hybrid threats, such as the sabotage of underwater cables, have become common since the invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Arctic is warming almost four times faster than the global average, and the melting ice is fueling the race for the resources hidden underground.

Faced with this new security scenario, Brussels wants the Arctic to be its "next focus" for investment, including in military matters. The most notable is the plan to build an underwater cable linking Greenland to the European continent, to guarantee the passage of telecommunications. The EU aspires for this supercable, dubbed Pan-Arctic, to extend to Japan and South Korea, passing through Canada. All this, within the framework of a greathub of Arctic cables.

The new EU plan to strengthen Arctic security will also feature icebreakers as protagonists. In total, the member states barely have a dozen icebreakers, some of which are not suitable for the Arctic. Russia, by contrast, has about forty. Now Brussels wants to reverse this trend and promote the joint purchase of this type of vessel, built to clear a path and navigate through ice-covered polar waters.

"To defend our interests, we are intensifying efforts in surveillance, infrastructure, military mobility, and defense technologies that can withstand harsh weather conditions," Kallas stated, highlighting that Arctic maritime routes and natural resources are of "strategic interest" to Europe. Thus, to strengthen cooperation and surveillance, a maritime security center will also be created to facilitate information exchange and the monitoring of maritime activities. The goal is for the center to gradually expand to the point of being able to track ghost fleet vessels, detect illegal fishing and pollution, and coordinate search and rescue operations.

The other rival, the USA

Greenland appears several times in the new security strategy presented by the EU, which updates the one from 2021. And it is no coincidence. The interest of the United States in the Arctic island has added a new layer of geopolitical instability to the region. The diplomatic fire provoked by Donald Trump when threatening to annex the territory was extinguished at the end of September, at the UN summit in New York, when Washington signed an agreement with Copenhagen and Nuuk. But Europe has learned the lesson and wants to secure the alliance with the island in the face of the unpredictability of American support.

The plan, in which neither the amount of investments nor the schedule is detailed, also provides that the deployed initiatives have an impact on the local economy. The last one announced by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was an investment of 200 million euros in Greenland. In the document, Brussels includes the desire to continue supporting the development of the territory, especially in renewable energy and sustainable mineral projects. "Oil, coal and gas must remain underground, also in Arctic regions", it insists.

Criticism of Trump over Ukraine

Although Kallas did not refer to Washington when speaking about Washington, she did mention it—and with considerable force—in reference to Ukraine. "American negotiators have been trying to pressure Ukraine to surrender for almost two years," said the head of European diplomacy, who also declared that if Kyiv has not yet surrendered on Vladimir Putin's terms, it is "because Europe has been supporting Ukraine."

The harshness of the Estonian leader's statements, which are a sign of the decline in relations with the White House since Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel, comes amid peace talks. Several negotiating teams, including members of the European Commission, are in Oslo negotiating an agreement for Ukraine.

From the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, Kallas argued that if Russia presents "maximalist demands," Europe and Ukraine must do so as well. One cannot give in "for free," she believes, because it is the way to ensure that the agreed-upon peace is "fair and lasting." "Europe must be around that table because these are European decisions," she claimed.