Growing Russia-China Arctic alliance spurs call for stronger US military presence in region

By Tony Wesolowsky | 2025-04-03

The expanding presence of Russia and China in the Arctic -- marked by joint military exercises and growing influence -- is prompting calls for a stronger US military presence in the region.

A US-based military think tank is urging the Pentagon to establish an Arctic Combined Interagency Task Force (ACITF) to offset the two powers and safeguard the region's rising strategic importance.

"Such an interagency task force construct could bridge the seams of the theater and make the Arctic a strategic focus," William Woityra and Grant Thomas, both captains of the US Coast Guard, wrote in an article published last month by the US Naval Institute, a non-profit military association that focuses on national security issues.

The US Defense Department has called for more resources to be spent in the Arctic to keep pace with China and Russia. A Pentagon strategy report issued in July 2024 called for more investment to upgrade sensors, communications and space-based technologies in the region.

NATO also is beefing up its defenses in the Arctic region, including holding the largest military drills by the Western military alliance since the end of the Cold War. The exercises in March 2024 involved about 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO states and simulated an attack on the organization's frigid Arctic fringe.

Chinese bombers

In their article, Woityra and Thomas noted that 2024 witnessed an uptick in Chinese and Russian military actions in the Arctic.

In October, the coast guards of China and Russia conducted their first joint Arctic maritime patrol.

In July, four Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew over the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, marking the first time their military aircraft launched from the same airbase in northern Russia and the first time Chinese bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

China and Russia also held joint naval exercises in the Bering Strait in 2022 and 2023.

"These first-ever joint Russian and Chinese deployments show how far the geopolitical dynamics in the Arctic region have already shifted and why the US must respond decisively," the authors said.

In the past 10 years, Russia has reestablished 14 Cold-War era Arctic military bases and launched icebreaking warships.

While China has no Arctic territory, it is eyeing the growing opportunities for mineral exploration and a shipping route to Europe as climate change causes the Arctic ice cap to recede.

Under current plans of the US Department of Defense, the Arctic region straddles between Northern Command, Indo-Pacific Command and European Command.

Establishing an ACITF, Woityra and Thomas argue, would be the "most practical and efficient means" for creating an effective regional Arctic command and control capability.

Icebreaker pact

The authors noted the model has already been tested on the opposite end of the globe with the long-standing operation of the Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica, which involves the US Air Force Pacific and IndoPaCom.

Other NATO members are also reacting to the increased military activities of Russia and China in the Arctic.

In December 2024, Canada issued a new Arctic Foreign Policy report to address its growing military cooperation with other allied nations in the region.

The report recommended that Canada bolster diplomatic and technological cooperation with NATO countries and other friendly nations, including Japan and South Korea.

In November 2024, Canada, Finland and the United States signed an agreement to jointly build icebreakers, vessels designed to cut through icy waters, a move driven in part by a desire to counter Russia's influence in the region.

The growing ties and military activities between Russia and China require NATO and its allies to pay closer attention to the Arctic region, according to Iris Ferguson, former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience.

"The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause," Ferguson said in an online discussion last December 5.

Despite this increased cooperation, China and Russia presently do not pose an immediate threat to the United States and its partners in the region, analysts say.