哥本哈根，9月25日——在格陵兰岛东部一条寒风呼啸的碎石简易机场跑道上，一支小型丹麦军事分队已悄然驻守数十年。
COPENHAGEN, Sept 25 - At a windswept gravel airstrip in eastern Greenland, a small Danish military detachment has quietly kept watch for decades.
如今，根据本周签署的一项新美国防协议，梅斯特斯维格（Mestersvig）前哨站可能很快成为美国在北极地区的关键军事据点。
Now, under a new US defence agreement signed this week, the outpost at Mestersvig could soon become a key American military foothold in the Arctic.
梅斯特斯维格距离最近的定居点（人口330人）有240公里（149英里），位于一个面积超过德国和法国总和的无人国家公园边缘。该地冬季被黑暗笼罩，平均气温约为零下10摄氏度（14华氏度）。
Mestersvig sits 240 kilometres (149 miles) from the nearest settlement (population 330), at the edge of an uninhabited national park larger than Germany and France combined. The place is covered in darkness during winter, with average temperatures of around minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
“这里是世界上你能找到的最偏远、最寒冷、最极端的地方。你必须去南极洲才能找到类似的条件，”丹麦“西里乌斯”雪橇犬巡逻队前军官安德斯·伊布森（Anders Ibsen）说。该精英部队使用梅斯特斯维格进行补给。
"This is as remote, as cold, and as extreme as you can find in the world. You have to go to Antarctica to find similar conditions," said Anders Ibsen, a former officer with Denmark's Sirius dog sled patrol, an elite unit that uses Mestersvig to resupply.
战略咽喉要道：该地俯瞰格陵兰岛、冰岛和英国之间的海域——即所谓的“GIUK缺口”——俄罗斯北方舰队必须穿越此处才能进入大西洋。对北约而言，控制这一咽喉要道对于遏制俄罗斯海军力量至关重要。
STRATEGIC CHOKEPOINT It oversees the stretch of ocean between Greenland, Iceland and Britain — known as the GIUK gap — that Russia's Northern Fleet must cross to reach the Atlantic. For NATO, controlling this chokepoint is critical to containing Russian naval power.
当地议员尤斯塔斯·汉森（Justus Hansen）欢迎这一扩张，并表示：“在格陵兰岛东部，我们确实需要那笔新资金。”根据该防务协议，华盛顿将被允许在梅斯特斯维格和格陵兰岛南部的纳尔苏瓦克（Narsarsuaq）建立新基地，这可能标志着数十年来美国在这座广阔、半自治的北极岛屿上的首次军事扩张。
Local member of parliament Justus Hansen welcomed the expansion, saying: "In east Greenland, we really need that new money." Under the defence agreement, Washington will be allowed to establish a new base at Mestersvig and Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland, potentially marking the first US military expansion on the vast, semi-autonomous Arctic island in decades.
目前，仅有三名士兵维护着这座建于20世纪60年代的设施，其中包括可容纳150名士兵的营房。美国尚未就其基地计划发表任何公开声明。
Currently, only three soldiers maintain the facility, which was built in the 1960s and includes barracks to house 150 soldiers.
外部兴趣的历史：在第二次世界大战期间，这座北极岛屿海岸的这一区域成为了“气象战”的前线，这是德国与盟国之间的一场竞赛，旨在解读格陵兰岛的天气，因为这些天气状况将在几天后影响北大西洋和欧洲的气候。
The US has made no public announcement about its plans for the base. A HISTORY OF OUTSIDE INTEREST During World War Two, this stretch of the Arctic island's coast became a front line in the "weather war", a race between Germany and the Allies to read Greenland's weather, which shaped conditions over the North Atlantic and Europe days later.
德国人曾在这里秘密建立载人站，但丹麦雪橇犬巡逻队发现了他们，盟军随后将其驱逐出境。
A HISTORY OF OUTSIDE INTEREST During World War Two, this stretch of the Arctic island's coast became a front line in the "weather war", a race between Germany and the Allies to read Greenland's weather, which shaped conditions over the North Atlantic and Europe days later.
附近大约20公里（12英里）外，一个欧盟支持的项目计划开采钼——一种对航空航天和国防至关重要的金属。一家德克萨斯州的石油公司计划今年冬天在梅斯特斯维格（Mestersvig）以南的一个未勘探盆地钻探石油，尽管它尚未获得相关许可证。
Germany secretly built manned stations here, but Danish dog sled patrols tracked them down, and Allied forces drove them out. Nearby, an EU-backed project aims to mine molybdenum — a critical metal for aerospace and defence — some 20 kilometres (12 miles) away. A Texas oil company plans to drill for oil this winter at an untested basin just south of Mestersvig, although it still lacks a permit to do so.
上一任所有者ARCO在20世纪70年代投入巨资进行地震勘探，但从未进行钻探。
Nearby, an EU-backed project aims to mine molybdenum — a critical metal for aerospace and defence — some 20 kilometres (12 miles) away. A Texas oil company plans to drill for oil this winter at an untested basin just south of Mestersvig, although it still lacks a permit to do so.
“格陵兰岛的任何基础设施改善都将受到热烈欢迎，”石油公司格陵兰能源（Greenland Energy）首席执行官罗伯特·普莱斯（Robert Price）表示。
The previous owner, ARCO, spent heavily on seismic work in the 1970s but never drilled. "Any infrastructural improvements in Greenland would be very welcome," said Robert Price, CEO of Greenland Energy, the oil company.
这条长1.8公里（1.1英里）的简易机场跑道长到足以供军用运输机降落，每年可积雪达5米。“下雪时，你基本上得24小时不停地除雪，”曾在梅斯特斯维格度过一年的前雪橇犬巡逻队员易卜生（Ibsen）说。“光是为了活下去，你就有忙不完的事。”路透社
The 1.8-km (1.1-mile) airstrip — long enough for military transport planes to land — can collect up to 5 meters of snow a year. "When it's snowing, you're basically removing snow 24/7," said Ibsen, the former dog sled patrol officer who spent a year at Mestersvig. "You have plenty to do just staying alive." REUTERS