A more accessible Arctic becomes proving ground for US-China military jockeying
- The strategic importance of Alaska’s polar north is clear, as the US prepares for training exercises and China becomes more active in the Arctic region
- ‘China, Russia, the US – Alaska is in the middle of all of it,’ says former American intelligence officer
Over the next two weeks, US armed forces will crawl through, drive over, fly above and shovel into Alaska’s thawing tundra, training to defend this sparsely populated state from a power whose ambitions increasingly defy geography.
Some 10,000 uniformed service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines will participate in the Northern Edge training exercise aimed at countering China, Russia and other potential adversaries that threaten the Arctic frontier and broader Indo-Pacific region.
“China in the South China Sea continues to make territorial claims that are not recognised by the international community. We see that China’s using a series of abject intimidation, economic, coercion techniques to try and justify their territorial claims,” said Lieutenant General David Krumm, commander of Alaska Command and the Eleventh Air Force.
“We need to make sure that pattern is not repeated up here in the Arctic,” added Krumm, an Alabama native overseeing Northern Edge.
02:27
Russia wants to build up its Arctic route with China, its top diplomat to Beijing says
Locals say Washington is finally waking up to the strategic importance of Alaska, America’s largest state geographically and least densely populated, too often considered an afterthought by the “Lower 48”.