Four navy warships, along with a reconnaissance aeroplane, were dispatched by the United States after a joint naval patrol was carried out by multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels near Alaska last week.
The combined naval patrol, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, looked like the largest such flotilla to approach US territory, as per experts who spoke to the media outlet.
“It’s a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, while speaking to the Journal.
He further added that the proximity of the flotilla to Alaska was a “highly provocative” manoeuvre, given the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and political tensions between the US and China over Taiwan. Since then, the flotilla has left.
US Northern Command, further confirming the combined naval patrol by Chinese and Russian officials, said, “Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defence of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat.”
The navy warships sent by the US, in response to the Chinese and Russian flotilla, were made up of four destroyers and a Poseidon P-8 patrol aeroplane.
The spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in Washington DC, Liu Pengyu, in a statement to the Journal, said that the patrol “is not targeted at any third party”.
“According to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean,” said Pengyu. “This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation,” he added.
Alaska senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan said that they are monitoring the situation after joint Chinese and Russian patrol came close to the Aleutian Islands. “We have been in close contact with leadership … for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting US waters in the Aleutians,” Murkowski said while speaking to the Wall Street Journal.
“This is a stark reminder of Alaska’s proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defence and territorial sovereignty,” he added.
