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

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Europe’s Pan-Arctic Cable will bypass United States to connect Canada, Japan, and South Korea.

The European Union prepares to produce the very first subsea Internet cable television straight linking Europe to Greenland. The Pan-Arctic Cable task might likewise encompass Canada and ultimately relate to Japan and South Korea, significantly bypassing the United States.

The Pan-Arctic Cable is referred to as a European Union flagship job in a European Commission joint interaction released on October 20, 2026. The policy file explains a brand-new European method for the Arctic that supports “a sovereign, safe and durable submarine cable television connection connecting Greenland straight to the EU,” while likewise recommending that “similar partners like Canada” might offer a stepping stone for future cable television growth towards Asia.

“It is intriguing that this job is even being thought about, due to the fact that 5 years ago it would have appeared like not an especially commercially appealing proposal,” Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who leads the Threats to the Global Maritime Order Initiative, informed Ars. “But the reality that it’s being thought about is quite on pattern and an indication of our times.”

The task has actually gotten main assistance after duplicated Trump administration tries to declare Greenland were lastly settled through a trilateral security contract in between the United States, Greenland and Denmark in September 2026. The contract maintains Greenland’s self-governing area status within the Kingdom of Denmark while broadening United States military gain access to. Relations have actually grown significantly stretched in between the United States and its allies in Europe and Canada because President Trump started trade wars with numerous nations and has actually taken a significantly pro-Russia position on the war in Ukraine.

Europe has actually likewise been considering brand-new Internet cable television paths to Asia since more than 90 percent of interactions in between Europe and Asia go through undersea cable televisions in the Red Sea, according to TeleGeography. Preserving such cable televisions has actually ended up being riskier because open warfare resumed in between the Yemeni federal government and Houthi faction this year, with Houthi forces having actually fired rockets and drones at industrial ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait chokepoint and the more comprehensive Red Sea.

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New cable television aspirations

The Pan-Arctic Cable took shape when European business and research study companies signed up with forces with a Greenland telecom operator to sign a contract on establishing the job in 2025, according to Submarine Cable Networks.

Because that time, the task has actually gotten European Union backing through the Connecting Europe Facility Digital program. The European Union has actually currently invested $119 million (107 million euros) to “advance Greenland’s safe and sovereign connection” together with moneying the Pan-Arctic Cable strategy, according to the brand-new European Commission policy file on Europe’s Arctic technique.

The objective of ultimately extending the undersea cable television to Japan and South Korea by method of Canada deals with significant obstacles, consisting of needing more European icebreaker ships to support the setup and upkeep of the cable television in icy Arctic waters. Several pan-Arctic tasks have actually been proposed in the past and some are still in advancement.

One earlier task referred to as the Arctic Connect subsea cable television intended to link Europe and Asia utilizing the Northern Sea Route running along Russia’s Arctic shoreline– however that was ultimately stopped in May 2021 before the major Russian intrusion of Ukraine caused growing Russian seclusion from Europe.

Still, the Pan-Arctic Cable is not the only subsea cable television task that might reinforce Europe’s ties to friendlier countries. In September 2026, the Norwegian business Bulk Infrastructure Group AS started trying to find a Canadian partner to take a bulk ownership stake in a brand-new transatlantic cable television straight connecting Europe to Canada, according to Bloomberg News. That proposed job has actually been called the Leif Erikson system.

Web economics paves the way to geopolitics

In previous years, “geopolitics played essentially no function when business thought about where to put their cable televisions and what nations to link,” stated Braw, whose book Undersea War checks out why the world has actually ended up being more hazardous for the Internet’s undersea foundation. The focus on making the most of information connection and Internet traffic has actually provided method to more complicated preparation that likewise accounts for worldwide relations and the growing threat of foes bring out monitoring or sabotage of cable televisions.

“We are visiting more cable televisions that link friendly nations, and after that you need to find out how you can link friendly nations without going through hostile nations’ special financial zones or territorial waters,” Braw informed Ars.

Growing worldwide stress have actually accompanied suspicious events of Russian- and Chinese-linked business ships severing European undersea cable televisions in the Baltic Sea by dragging their anchors for extended periods of time. In spring 2026, NATO nations’ forces likewise challenged Russian submarines that were practicing how to disable undersea cable televisions in Arctic waters near Norway, Reuters reported.

Europe’s brand-new Arctic technique file addresses such security dangers by specifying that the European Union will develop an Arctic Cable Hub to “keep track of, secure and support the repair work of submarine cable televisions in the North Atlantic-Arctic.” It likewise states the European Union will buy “clever innovations on cable televisions that serve as early caution systems for prospective hazards.”

Such dangers for undersea facilities are not restricted to the Baltic Sea or Atlantic Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, Chinese-linked business ships have actually likewise severed undersea cable televisions near Taiwan. Experts have actually recorded Chinese research study vessels investing uncommon quantities of time near Pacific undersea cable televisions and alerted of the increasing threats for US-linked subsea cable television jobs that are typically owned by Big Tech business such as Google and Meta.

Iran has actually threatened to charge costs to subsea cable television operators whose cable televisions run through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. That action comes as part of a more comprehensive local war in the Middle East that started when the United States and Israel assaulted Iran in February 2026– and Iran has actually prepared strategies to possibly assault undersea cable televisions if hostilities increase when again.

Jeremy Hsu is a press reporter checking out a large range of subjects throughout deep tech and AI. He has actually formerly composed for New Scientist, Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Wired, Undark Magazine and MIT Tech Review, amongst lots of other publications, about subjects such as deepfakes, information centers, drones, battery tech, robotics, and GPS jamming. He likewise has a Master of Arts in Journalism from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania in History and Sociology of Science, with a small in English.

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