The US should not exaggerate the military cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic, a Pentagon official said on Thursday, even as Washington develops a nuanced understanding of its two power rivals in the “high north”.
The cautioning by Iris Ferguson, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for Arctic and global resilience, comes amid growing concern by US policymakers about the expanding Russia-China cooperation in the region, a new front for military competition because of climate change and the hunt for natural resources.
In July, for the first time, Beijing and Moscow conducted a joint air patrol in international airspace off the coast of the US state of Alaska, with four strategic bombers from China and Russia flying over the Chukchi and Bering Seas.
It also marked the first time Chinese and Russian aircraft had taken off from the same base in northeast Russia.
The joint patrol, Ferguson said, might signal some change in Russia’s Arctic policy regarding China. For a long time, Moscow had been wary about permitting China’s presence in the Arctic, which she called “one of the crown jewels for Russia”.
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