High north hots up

The Arctic and high north region is strategically vital for European security but continues to be vulnerable at a time it is emerging as a theatre for geopolitical rivalry.

The maritime domain stretching from the Arctic to the North Sea is critical for the EU’s security posture particularly in the new era of increased Russian threat.

“That applies in particular with regard to Russia, which has traditionally attached great importance to the high north because of the naval bases around Murmansk,”said Marius Strubenhoff, who conducts research on the Arctic at the Centre for European Policy Studies.

Moscow elevated the Arctic’s significance in its 2023 update of its national security strategy, including with an eye to the northern sea route.

Beyond Russia’s military footprint, the high north is also becoming increasingly important for the EU for other reasons, Strubenhoff said.

“In addition to resource wealth, which received so much attention during the Greenland crisis, satellite infrastructure is also a key issue,” he told Euractiv.

Communications with satellites in polar orbit are more effective the further north ground infrastructure is located and the EU relies on a satellite ground station in Svalbard, with data transmitted from there to Europe via undersea cables.

“The setup is strategically significant but also vulnerable,” said Strubenhoff.

As a result, he noted, the EU is building an additional ground station in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland – a territory that has assumed an unprecedented importance after threats by Donald Trump to annex it from Denmark.

In a sign of the region’s growing significance the European Commisison this week appointed a new envoy on EU-Arctic relations: Jyrki Katainen, the former Finnish prime minister.

“In this capacity, will support the Commission in enhancing its strategic presence and effectiveness in the Arctic region,” said a statement.

Internally, Katainen should act as an advocate for the high north’s security relevance, Strubenhoff said, an argument that also needs to be made to southern EU member states, which face their own regional challenge. “The Hezbollah attack on the British base at Akrotiri in Cyprus also underlines the relevance of the Arctic. Cyprus was the first EU member state to rely on the EU’s newly operational GOVSATCOM satellite communications system in response to the incident.”

On connectivity, Strubenhoff said Katainen would need to keep defence resilience in view. “It is economically sensible to lay data cables under the Arctic toward Japan to minimise latency. At the same time, the EU must ask whether its member states are capable of protecting infrastructure built with EU funding.”

Katainen should also internally stress that disruptive technologies in the field of maritime security receive the attention, Strubenhoff said.

“The EU’s AGILE program, which funds disruptive security technologies, is a step in the right direction, he added, but its budget is too limited. At €115 million, it amounts to little more than a drop in the ocean by international standards.”

Externally, the former Finnish prime minister should also remind Europe that the Arctic is not an empty space, Strubenhoff said. That perspective matters, he added, because Europe’s strength also rests on its refusal to treat the region as strategically irrelevant, unlike some other global actors.