US plans to weaken Russian influence in the Arctic

P-8 reconnaissance aircraft. Photo: AP

US Navy officials have signaled that they will send a group of ships to the Arctic this summer to strengthen their presence in the region. According to information posted on the US Naval Institute website recently, during a discussion hosted by the Center for a New American Security on January 8, US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said that the US Navy has had a regular presence in the Arctic since the 1960s, but most of these activities have been carried out by submarines or patrol aircraft, not warships.

According to this official, he and the US Navy Commander have discussed sending a number of warships through the Arctic, and this would be a mission involving many forces, including the US Coast Guard. Mr. Spencer said that with the plan to open three trans-Arctic shipping routes in the near future, the US Navy's discussion about the current situation in this region has changed significantly over the past two years.

According to Mr. Spencer's statement, the mission to send warships will be the first operation of the US Navy to ensure freedom of navigation in the Arctic, and with such actions, Washington intends to respond to "excessive claims of some countries".

The deployment of warships to the Arctic would be the first US Navy operation to ensure freedom of navigation in the region, according to the Wall Street Journal. The US also plans to send its military to Adak Island, a part of Alaska, where a US military base used to be, the paper said.

The paper said that global warming has caused the melting of ice in the Arctic region, increasing the opportunity to explore new shipping routes and ships have also been more active in this area than before, leading to more tensions in the trade and military fields between the US, Russia and China. This has turned the Arctic region into a new security hotspot.