EU shifts Arctic strategy towards security as threats rise
Arctic awakening
The EU’s revamped Arctic strategy will put security threats front and centre when it is unveiled today, underlining how much geopolitical tensions have reshaped the region since the EU unveiled a climate-focused approach in 2021, writes Ian Johnston.
Context: Melting ice is making the Arctic increasingly accessible while growing tensions between Russia, China and the US are making it more unstable. The EU’s new strategy will lay out Europe’s own ambitions in the Arctic.
“For decades, the Arctic was stable and a beacon for co-operation. Predictability and restraint prevailed. Since 2022, this reality has fundamentally changed,” the bloc’s Arctic strategy will warn today, according to a draft seen by the FT.
The previous strategy was developed months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with lofty ambitions to secure a binding multilateral agreement to prevent new drilling in the Arctic, an ambition dropped in the new strategy.
Since 2021, Russia has stepped up hybrid attacks in the region, while US President Donald Trump has pushed for a greater role in the Arctic through threats to annex Greenland.
Shipping through the Arctic has also reached record levels this year as melting sea ice and pressure on the Strait of Hormuz force shipowners to find alternative routes, according to data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The strategy will warn that Russia has expanded its hybrid threats through the use of drones, satellite jamming and damage to undersea cables.
In response, the EU will develop more data sharing to keep track of shadow fleet vessels and hybrid threats. It will also seek to keep track of illegal fishing and maritime pollution, as well as establish a cable initiative to support and repair damaged submarine cables.
The strategy also points to new frontiers, saying that the EU will support “diversified spaceports” in the Arctic to give it “resilient and competitive access to space”.
Both Norway and Sweden are working to launch satellites into orbit at the Andøya and Esrange spaceports, north of the Arctic Circle.