As Trump points to Russia and China near Greenland, experts say the biggest Russian and Chinese activity is elsewhere in the Arctic.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
President Trump has repeatedly said that acquiring Greenland was necessary for national and international security reasons and often points to Russia and China’s presence in Arctic waters as an example. NPR’s international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports on just what Russia and China are doing in the North.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: A warming climate is having a profound impact on the Arctic. Once-forbidden waterways are gradually opening up. The search for resources is intensifying, and Russia is increasingly active in staking its claim – not surprising considering more than 50% of the Arctic Ocean coastline is Russian.
SOPHIE ARTS: The Arctic has been of great strategic importance to Russia, both from a security and economic standpoint for a very long time.
NORTHAM: Sophie Arts focuses on Arctic security and geopolitics at the German Marshall Fund, or GMF, in Washington, D.C. She says melting sea ice is creating economic opportunities for Russia from resource extraction to shipping.
ARTS: Russia has placed a great focus on developing the Northern Sea route to which it controls all access in the hopes really of turning it into a transit route, longer-term, and simultaneously to drive investment into its energy and infrastructure projects.
NORTHAM: At the same time, the Kremlin has been modernizing its military assets – bases and the like – in the High North, as part of its effort to restore its geopolitical status in the world, says Klaus Dodds, a professor of geopolitics at Middlesex University in London.
KLAUS DODDS: So as part of that process over, I would say, 15 years, Russia reopens Arctic facilities, rebuilds and extends, in some cases, runways and those kind of things.
NORTHAM: Dodds, coauthor of “Unfrozen: The Fight For The Future Of The Arctic,” says Russia still employs a Cold War naval strategy of using a series of defensive measures to protect its nuclear-armed, ballistic missile submarines around the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic.
DODDS: The only thing that has changed is Russian submarines are a great deal more sophisticated than Soviet submarines.
NORTHAM: Sophie Arts with the GMF says Russia poses a more acute threat to the Arctic than China. Although it’s not an Arctic nation, she says China has ambitions in the polar region, focusing on commercial shipping, including building a fleet of icebreakers, putting up a network of satellites in polar orbits and scientific expeditions.
ARTS: So for instance, China is mapping the seabed. We’ve also done research at GMS that suggests that they’re doing acoustical research, which really helps to create greater awareness of the operating environment in the Arctic but could also support the operations of submarines and other undersea technologies.
NORTHAM: Dodds says China is increasingly relying on Russia for access to the region. It’s also trying to ingratiate itself with others in the High North.
DODDS: So China has taken a great deal of interest in trying to cultivate resource-based relationships with Arctic states, trying to get into the Canadian mining sector, for example, has tried to buy infrastructure in Greenland, largely rebuffed on national security grounds.
NORTHAM: But China has also demonstrated a show of force against the U.S. It’s conducted joint military air and naval maneuvers with Russia in the Bering Sea near Alaska but not anywhere near Greenland, says Malte Humpert with the D.C.-based Arctic Institute.
MALTE HUMPERT: The statement by Trump that Greenland is surrounded by Russian and Chinese vessels is simply not true. It’s actually quite the opposite that there’s a lot more Chinese and Russian activity off the Alaska coastline.
NORTHAM: While the Trump administration has been focused on Greenland of late, there just may be a problem to address much closer to home. Jackie Northam, NPR News.
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