The United States is alarmed by the growing interaction between Russia and China in the Arctic and is monitoring it closely. On November 1, the US president’s special representative for Arctic relations, Michael Sfraga, spoke about this in an interview with Reuters.
“The fact that they cooperate in the Arctic draws our attention… We are following the development of activities very closely.” – said Sfraga.
Sfraga cited the example of a joint flight of Russian and Chinese bombers off the coast of Alaska in July and the passage of Chinese and Russian coast guard ships through the Bering Strait in October.
He noted that while these operations were carried out in international waters in accordance with international law, the very fact that the bombers flew off the coast of Alaska raised concerns about US security.
“We need to think about security, strengthen our own alliances, our own mutual defense. “Alaska, the North American Arctic, is the western flank of NATO and so we must think of the Arctic that way.” – he commented.
According to him, this activity also worries US allies, since the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea open access to the northern and southern parts of the Pacific Ocean, Izvestia writes.
