Story by Laura Zhou
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.
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It also marked the first time Chinese and Russian aircraft had taken off from the same base in northeast Russia.
Iris Ferguson, US assistant deputy secretary of defence for Arctic and global resilience. Photo: Handout
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”.
“From a military perspective, that’s new and unique,” she said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “I also want to really emphasise that this isn’t necessarily an alliance as we traditionally think of it as an alliance.
“It’s really important to not overstate what [China] is getting out of Russia as well.”
Unlike the US alliances with European and Asian countries, she noted, Beijing and Moscow have no formal alliance agreement.
“We know what it takes to operate with allies,” Ferguson added. “We know the years of investment and trust-building and interoperability required to make an alliance – and them flying in circles together is not the same.”
“I do think it’s important for us to be consistently monitoring how their intentions progress.”
China considers itself a near-Arctic nation and has steadily increased its presence in the region, sending research teams in every year.
However, its involvement is largely through its partnership with Russia, which possesses slightly more than half the Arctic Ocean’s coastline.
Economically isolated from the West because of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is turning to China for help in developing its Arctic advantages, particularly a Northern Sea route that could cut shipping times from East Asia to Europe as more arctic ice melts.
In May, the two sides set up a commission on developing the Arctic route, and in August agreed to hold dialogues on “navigation security and polar shipping building”.
Some in Washington have voiced concerns that Beijing will use civilian polar research missions and commercial activities to advance military goals.
In its newest Arctic Strategy, the Pentagon said that Russia and China’s increasing cooperation in the region, along with the threat posed by climate change, heralded “a new, more dynamic Arctic security environment” and that the US and its allies should be prepared.
The Arctic Circle has long offered the shortest flight path for intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers.
But amid the melting ice, the Arctic also now hosts a number of strategic maritime chokepoints, including the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. China and Russia have also conducted joint military operations over and in the Bering Sea.
Alaska is home to 100 fifth-generation US jet fighters as well as an airborne division that allows for rapid force projection into the Indo-Pacific, a region where the US is vying with China for influence.
The US is “an Arctic nation because of Alaska”, Dan Sullivan, one of the state’s two senators, said at the Hudson Institute on Wednesday, adding that the US needed to expand its presence in the region.
“The Russians have 54 icebreakers, many of which are nuclear-powered, many of which are weaponised. And we have two and one is broken. So we are way, way behind the power curve on this,” he said.
In July, the US, Finland and Canada signed a trilateral collaboration to build polar icebreakers.
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