Russia Leads Race to Dominate the Arctic --- Moscow is working with Beijing atop the globe -- and leaving the U.S. behind

"Things in the Arctic have never been hotter. In the past year, Russian nuclear submarines have practiced firing cruise missiles near NATO members Norway, Finland and Sweden. That drill followed Arctic wargames by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that included amphibious assaults in the frigid seas.

When Russian and Chinese bombers flew together north of Alaska in August, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski described the move as an "unprecedented provocation by our adversaries." The following month, Russia and China sent patrol boats through icy waters of the high north.

The U.S. and Russia are only 53 miles apart across the Bering Strait, near the Arctic Circle. Geopolitically, they are more distant than in decades.

Sea-ice cover in the Arctic has shrunk from an annual minimum of 2.7 million square miles in 1979 to 1.7 million square miles in 2024, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

As the sea ice has retreated, the number of high-latitude voyages taken by ships through the region has advanced.

During the Cold War, both sides deployed some of their most powerful weapons and surveillance systems in the region. Now, rising animosity is prompting Russia and NATO to renew military deployments in the region because it offers each side prime territory from which to strike, said Rob Huebert, the interim director of the University of Calgary's Center for Military, Security and Strategic Studies.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2023 said Moscow's ability to maintain a strong presence in the Arctic Ocean outstrips Washington's capacity.

Norad, the joint U.S.-Canadian command created in 1958 to defend the continent against Soviet attack, aims to detect any impending assault from over the North Pole. But its surveillance network of satellites, ground-based radar and air-force bases has fallen out of date.

Russia and China are deploying new missiles that can reach five times the speed of sound.

The U.S. and Canada are working to modernize Norad. Canada, which lags behind most NATO members in military spending, recently bought 88 F-35 jet fighters from the U.S., which it will deploy in northern bases.

"The Arctic is a region for potential future conflict," Russia's Commander of the Northern Fleet, Aleksandr Moiseyev, told a recent conference in St. Petersburg, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The region is already a zone of intense commercial competition. The U.S. has no Arctic deep-water ports to host heavy containerships. Most of Alaska has no roads or rail lines. Canada has just one deep-water port offering access to the Arctic Ocean, and it lies 500 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Airports in remote spots have runways of packed earth or gravel, unsuitable for commercial cargo planes or jet aircraft.

Russia's growing international isolation following events in Ukraine in 2022 helped cement ties with China. Russia has increasingly opened its Arctic territory to Beijing as Beijing has propped up the Russian economy and provided equipment to buttress its military.

Chinese companies are significant investors and equipment suppliers in Russian energy projects including the Yamal LNG and Arctic 2 LNG projects. Russia, in return, has been shipping fuel to China. Last year saw a record volume for transit cargo through the Northern Sea Route from northwestern Russia to the Bering Strait, according to Rosatom, the Russian agency that oversees the waterway. Almost all of that cargo went to China from Russia, and more than half was crude oil.

President Trump focused attention on the region recently when he proposed buying Greenland from Denmark to expand America's Arctic presence, saying, "We need it for national security." Greenland is strategically located and rich in rare-earth elements, used in devices from smartphones to jet fighters.

Russia's Arctic already contributes roughly 10% of its gross domestic product, including 17% of oil sales, 80% of natural gas and one-third of all fishing. Alaska accounted for only 0.2% of U.S. GDP in 2023, and Canada's northern territories less than 1% of the country's economic activity.

Russia also has laid claim to yet-uncharted resources on the Arctic seabed. Its military has collected geographical evidence to support Moscow's argument that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge -- also claimed by Denmark and Canada and potentially rich in oil and natural gas -- is part of Russian territory. Russia has provided maps of the ocean floor drawn up by its military and scientists to a commission of the United Nations, which is judging the competing claims. Russia is already mapping out sea currents around it and taking soil samples.

China has long sought a greater role in the Arctic, where the country's leadership believes melting ice will open up economic opportunities but also increase security risks. In 2018, China declared itself a "near Arctic" nation and an "important stakeholder in Arctic affairs."

Security is now joining commerce at the forefront of Russia-China Arctic cooperation. The Chinese Coast Guard and the Russian Border Guard in October staged their first joint patrol in the Arctic. The U.S. Coast Guard, which monitored the two Chinese and two Russian ships by air, said it was the farthest north that ships from the Chinese Coast Guard had ever been spotted.

In July, two Russian and two Chinese bombers flew together near Alaska, where they were intercepted by U.S. and Canadian jet fighters. They didn't enter U.S. or Canadian airspace. U.S. officials said it was the first time the two countries had carried out such a joint patrol near Alaska.

In 2023, ships from the Russian and Chinese navies jointly patrolled near Alaska in what was considered the largest such flotilla to approach American shores. They never entered U.S. waters.

China and Russia now have "comprehensive" Arctic cooperation, said Liu Nengye, an associate professor at Singapore Management University, who researches polar law. "It's resources, it's shipping, it's scientific research, it's military drills," he said.” [1]

1. World News: Russia Leads Race to Dominate the Arctic --- Moscow is working with Beijing atop the globe -- and leaving the U.S. behind. Kiss, Daniel; Grove, Thomas; Monga, Vipal; Austin Ramzy; Ruiz, Roque. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 Feb 2025: A18.