Pentagon to bolster response to China, Russia in melting Arctic

In a new report, the US defence department highlighted concern over ‘growing alignment’ between China and Russia

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A polar bear stands on melting Arctic sea ice in Svalbard, Norway. Photo: Polar Bears International / KT Miller / AFP

Published: 5:05am, 23 Jul 2024Updated: 1:50pm, 23 Jul 2024

The United States will expand its military readiness and surveillance in the Arctic given heightened Chinese and Russian interest coupled with new risks brought on by accelerating climate change, the Pentagon said in a new report.

Measures are needed “to ensure the Arctic does not become a strategic blind spot” as melting ice makes the region more accessible economically and militarily, according to the Defence Department’s 2024 Arctic Strategy released on Monday.

Kathleen Hicks, Washington’s deputy defence secretary. Photo: AFP

“We’ve seen growing cooperation between the PRC and Russia in the Arctic commercially, with the PRC being a major funder of Russian energy exploitation in the Arctic,” Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks told journalists, using an abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

Priorities include better surveillance of the vast region, as well as research into space-based missile warning systems, deeper coordination across Nato and with Canada through the North American Aerospace Defence Command, and improved satellite and data communications.

The Pentagon also said it needs better modelling and forecasting of the rapidly changing environment to prepare for potential combat in increasingly unpredictable conditions so far north.

“The United States is an Arctic nation, and the region is critical to the defence of our homeland, the protection of US national sovereignty and our defence treaty commitments,” Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an attached memo. “Major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic.”

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia on July 15. Photo: AFP