As US ties fray, Europe plans first undersea cable link to Greenland

本文为原文前 6,000 字符的节选翻译，完整内容请查看原文。

The European Union plans to create the first subsea Internet cable directly connecting Europe to Greenland. The Pan-Arctic Cable project could also extend to Canada and eventually link with Japan and South Korea, notably bypassing the United States.

欧盟计划铺设第一条直接连接欧洲与格陵兰岛的海底互联网电缆。这项“泛北极电缆”项目未来可能延伸至加拿大，并最终与日本和韩国相连，值得注意的是，该线路将绕过美国。

The Pan-Arctic Cable is described as a European Union flagship project in a European Commission joint communication published on October 20, 2026. The policy document describes a new European strategy for the Arctic that supports “a sovereign, secure and resilient submarine cable connection linking Greenland directly to the EU,” while also suggesting that “like-minded partners like Canada” could provide a stepping stone for future cable expansion toward Asia.

在2026年10月20日发布的欧盟委员会联合公报中，泛北极电缆被描述为欧盟的旗舰项目。该政策文件阐述了欧洲新的北极战略，支持“建立一条连接格陵兰岛与欧盟的自主、安全且具有韧性的海底电缆”，并指出“像加拿大这样志同道合的伙伴”可以为未来电缆向亚洲扩展提供跳板。

“It is interesting that this project is even being considered, because five years ago it would have seemed like not a particularly commercially attractive proposition,” Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who leads the Threats to the Global Maritime Order Initiative, told Ars. “But the fact that it’s being considered is very much on trend and a sign of our times.”

大西洋理事会高级研究员、全球海洋秩序威胁倡议负责人伊丽莎白·布劳（Elisabeth Braw）告诉Ars：“这个项目能被提上日程很有意思，因为五年前它看起来并不是一个特别具有商业吸引力的提议。但它现在被考虑的事实非常符合当前的趋势，也是我们这个时代的写照。”

The project has gained official support after repeated Trump administration attempts to claim Greenland were finally settled through a trilateral security agreement between the United States, Greenland and Denmark in September 2026. The agreement preserves Greenland’s autonomous territory status within the Kingdom of Denmark while expanding US military access.

在特朗普政府多次试图宣称对格陵兰岛主权后，美国、格陵兰岛和丹麦于2026年9月达成了一项三方安全协议，该项目随之获得了官方支持。该协议在保留格陵兰岛作为丹麦王国自治领土地位的同时，扩大了美国的军事准入。

But relations have grown increasingly strained between the United States and its allies in Europe and Canada since President Trump initiated trade wars with multiple countries and has taken an increasingly pro-Russia stance on the war in Ukraine. Europe has also been eyeing new Internet cable routes to Asia because more than 90 percent of communications between Europe and Asia run through undersea cables in the Red Sea, according to TeleGeography.

然而，自特朗普总统对多个国家发起贸易战，并在乌克兰战争问题上采取日益亲俄的立场以来，美国与其欧洲和加拿大盟友之间的关系日益紧张。据TeleGeography称，欧洲也一直在寻求通往亚洲的新互联网电缆路线，因为目前欧亚之间超过90%的通信都通过红海的海底电缆传输。

Maintaining such cables has become riskier since open warfare resumed between the Yemeni government and Houthi faction this year, with Houthi forces having fired missiles and drones at commercial ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait chokepoint and the broader Red Sea.

自今年也门政府与胡塞武装之间恢复公开战争以来，维护这些电缆的风险变得更高，胡塞武装已在曼德海峡这一咽喉要道及更广泛的红海海域向商船发射了导弹和无人机。

New cable ambitions: The Pan-Arctic Cable took shape when European companies and research organizations joined forces with a Greenland telecom operator to sign an agreement on developing the project in 2025, according to Submarine Cable Networks. Since that time, the project has received European Union backing through the Connecting Europe Facility Digital program.

新电缆雄心：据Submarine Cable Networks报道，泛北极电缆项目始于2025年，当时欧洲公司和研究机构与一家格陵兰电信运营商联手签署了开发协议。自那时起，该项目通过“连接欧洲设施数字计划”（Connecting Europe Facility Digital）获得了欧盟的支持。

The European Union has already invested $119 million (107 million euros) to “advance Greenland’s secure and sovereign connectivity” along with funding the Pan-Arctic Cable plan, according to the new European Commission policy document on Europe’s Arctic strategy. But the goal of eventually extending the undersea cable to Japan and South Korea by way of Canada faces considerable challenges, including requiring more European icebreaker ships to support the installation and maintenance of the cable in icy Arctic waters.

根据欧盟委员会关于欧洲北极战略的新政策文件，欧盟已投资1.19亿美元（1.07亿欧元）用于“推进格陵兰岛的安全和自主连接”，并资助了泛北极电缆计划。但将海底电缆经由加拿大最终延伸至日本和韩国的目标面临巨大挑战，包括需要更多的欧洲破冰船来支持电缆在冰冷的北极水域的铺设和维护。

Multiple pan-Arctic projects have been proposed in the past and some are still in development. One earlier project known as the Arctic Connect subsea cable aimed to connect Europe and Asia using the Northern Sea Route running along Russia’s Arctic coastline—but that was eventually halted in May 2021 before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine led to growing Russian isolation from Europe.

过去曾提出过多个泛北极项目，其中一些仍在开发中。一个名为“北极连接”（Arctic Connect）的早期海底电缆项目曾旨在利用沿俄罗斯北极海岸线的北海航线连接欧洲和亚洲，但该项目最终于2021年5月停止，随后俄罗斯对乌克兰的全面入侵导致俄罗斯与欧洲的隔阂日益加深。

Still, the Pan-Arctic Cable is not the only subsea cable project that could strengthen Europe’s ties to friendlier nations. In September 2026, the Norwegian company Bulk Infrastructure Group AS began looking for a Canadian partner to take a majority ownership stake in a new transatlantic cable directly linking Europe to Canada, according to Bloomberg News. That proposed project has been named the Leif Erikson system.

尽管如此，泛北极电缆并不是唯一一个能够加强欧洲与友好国家联系的海底电缆项目。据彭博社报道，2026年9月，挪威Bulk Infrastructure Group AS公司开始寻找加拿大合作伙伴，以获得一条直接连接欧洲与加拿大的新跨大西洋电缆的多数股权。该拟议项目被命名为“莱夫·埃里克松”（Leif Erikson）系统。

Internet economics gives way to geopolitics: In previous decades, “geopolitics played virtually no role when companies considered where to put their cables and what countries to connect,” said Braw, whose book Undersea War explores why the world has become more dangerous for the Internet’s undersea backbone. But the focus on maximizing data connectivity and Internet traffic has given way to more complex planning that also accounts for international relations and the growing risk of adversaries carrying out surveillance or sabotage of cables.

互联网经济让位于地缘政治：布劳表示，在过去几十年里，“当公司考虑在哪里铺设电缆以及连接哪些国家时，地缘政治几乎不起任何作用。”她的著作《海底战争》（Undersea War）探讨了为什么世界对互联网海底骨干网来说变得更加危险。但对最大化数据连接和互联网流量的关注，已经让位于更复杂的规划，这些规划还考虑到了国际关系以及对手对电缆进行监视或破坏的日益增长的风险。

“We are going to see more cables that connect friendly countries, and then you have to figure out how you can connect friendly countries without going through unfriendly countries’ exclusive economic zones or territorial waters,” Braw told Ars.

布劳告诉Ars：“我们将看到更多连接友好国家的电缆，然后你必须弄清楚如何在不经过不友好国家的专属经济区或领海的情况下连接这些友好国家。”

Growing international tensions have coincided with suspicious incidents of Russian- and Chinese-linked commercial ships severing European undersea cables in the Baltic Sea by dragging their anchors for long periods of time. In spring 2026, NATO countries’ forces also confronted Russian submarines that were practicing how to disable undersea cables in Arctic waters near Norway, Reuters reported.

国际紧张局势的加剧与一些可疑事件同时发生，即与俄罗斯和中国有关的商船通过长时间拖拽锚具，切断了波罗的海的欧洲海底电缆。据路透社报道，2026年春季，北约国家军队还与在挪威附近北极水域演练如何破坏海底电缆的俄罗斯潜艇进行了对峙。

Europe’s new Arctic strategy document addresses such security threats by stating that the European Union will establish an Arctic Cable Hub to “monitor, protect and support the repair of submarine cables in the North Atlantic-Arctic.” It also says the European Union will invest in “smart technologies on cables that act as early warning systems for potential threats.”

欧洲新的北极战略文件通过声明欧盟将建立一个“北极电缆中心”来应对此类安全威胁，旨在“监测、保护并支持北大西洋-北极地区海底电缆的维修”。文件还称，欧盟将投资于“电缆上的智能技术，作为潜在威胁的预警系统”。

Such risks for undersea infrastructure are not limited to the Baltic Sea or Atlantic Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, Chinese-linked commercial ships have also severed undersea cables near Taiwan. Analysts have documented Chinese research vessels spending unusual amounts of time near Pacific undersea cables and warned of the rising risks for US-linked subsea cable projects that are often owned by Big Tech companies.

海底基础设施面临的此类风险并不局限于波罗的海或大西洋。在太平洋地区，与中国有关的商船也曾切断台湾附近的海底电缆。分析人士记录了中国科考船在太平洋海底电缆附近停留异常长时间的情况，并警告称，通常由大型科技公司拥有的与美国相关的海底电缆项目正面临日益增长的风险。