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The ice is not melting between them: is the United States and Russia facing a confrontation in the Arctic
The Alaska summit between the leaders of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, scheduled for August 15, will take place against the backdrop of the Arctic Region 2025 military maneuvers, which started at the very beginning of the month and were organized by the United States together with its NATO allies. The purpose of the exercises is to counter Russia's influence. At the same time, Moscow has repeatedly expressed its readiness to cooperate with Washington in the region. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Anti–Russian exercises "Arctic Region - 2025"
"The Arctic Region is a regular defense exercise designed to demonstrate the combat readiness of the forces involved that protect North America in an increasingly difficult security environment in the Arctic," the Northern Command of the US Armed Forces said in a press release. The maneuvers, which started on August 1, took place in several parts of Alaska and will last until August 31. They are conducted by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Northern Command of the US Armed Forces, and among the participants, in addition to the United States, there are representatives of Britain and Denmark.
It clarifies that the main objectives of the exercises are to detect, track and neutralize advanced cruise missile threats on the northern approaches, and the maneuver points are located near the borders of Russia, along the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait.
The day before, American and Canadian fighter jets conducted a show of force over one of the islands in the region near the border with Russia.
Moscow maintains a strong presence in the Arctic, the growing geopolitical frontier between Russia and the West, through the construction of military outposts, the deployment of military aircraft near Alaska's airspace, and cooperation with China.
In addition to the Arctic Region, Alaska will also host Polar Dagger maneuvers from August 15 to 25 with the participation of U.S. Navy seals and other special forces.
From Trump to Biden and back again
The United States conducts similar military exercises annually. Even during the first presidency of Donald Trump, Washington began to pay great attention to the Arctic — as the White House explains, to "deter Russia and China, which are increasingly developing the region, including through joint military exercises." America also announced the construction of an icebreaking fleet to "protect national interests" in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as to ensure a strong presence of its forces in these regions. The program is planned to be implemented until 2029.
Among the non—military functions that medium and heavy class ships will need to perform are laying underwater cables, as well as exploration and extraction of natural resources. Also, according to Trump's idea, the future fleet should perform security tasks using unmanned aircraft, operating control systems with the possibility of equipping them with secure data transmission and intelligence gathering systems.
Under Joe Biden, the Pentagon updated its Arctic strategy, declaring plans to expand its presence in the region, which has become more accessible due to climate change. The authors of the document considered Russia to be the main threats to American interests in the region, which, according to them, "continues to build up its military infrastructure in the Arctic and make excessive claims to Arctic waters."
Moscow and Beijing called the document confrontational and stressed that the Arctic region should not become a territory of strife.
"The increased military activity of the United States and NATO in the Arctic space increases the likelihood of incidents, which can lead to an uncontrolled escalation of tension," Nikolai Patrushev, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation and head of the Naval Collegium, said at a recent meeting of the Council for Strategic Development of the Navy.
He recalled that cooperation in the Arctic was called one of the promising areas for the resumption of cooperation between Moscow and Washington after the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
Speaking at the recent Arctic—Regions forum, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said that Russia has consistently advocated maintaining peace and stability in the North and remains open to pragmatic cooperation in the Arctic with all those who are ready for an equal and respectful dialogue.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for economic cooperation with Foreign countries, holds a similar position. In particular, he called on the parties to cooperate in the field of environment, infrastructure and energy in the Arctic and beyond.
What do the experts think
Alexander Ermakov, a junior researcher at the IMEMO RAS Center for International Security, told Izvestia that the current Arctic Edge 2025 maneuvers differ from last year's and other planned exercises only in that they receive increased media attention today due to the summit in Alaska.
— Cooperation between Russia and the United States in the Arctic is possible in the same way as in other areas of economic cooperation. Unlike outer space, the Arctic cannot be attributed to any special spheres, the expert believes.
Ilya Kramnik, a researcher at the IMEMO RAS Center for the Study of Strategic Planning, also believes that there are no significant differences from previous exercises.
— Cooperation between Russia and the United States is, of course, possible, including in terms of ensuring the safety of navigation, and in the case of normalization of relations, in terms of exploiting Arctic resources. In addition, Russia and the United States are interested in limiting activity in the region by non-Arctic states, in particular China. The Russian Federation is interested in China using the infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route, without trying to walk across the Arctic Ocean on its own. The United States is interested in having as little China as possible," the expert is sure.
Pavel Gudev, a leading researcher at the IMEMO named after E.M. Primakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, notes in an interview with Izvestia that there is a trend towards the militarization of the Arctic.
— Earlier and now, the main accusations are directed towards the Russian Federation, but in fact the opposite is happening: it is the NATO forces that are strengthening their presence there. In fact, Russia is only trying to achieve one thing: to ensure that its military and naval potential here meets the threat level, nothing more, the expert believes.
According to him, in all its recent documents on the Arctic, the United States identifies Russia and China as the two main threats to its security in the region.
— This is a very strange point of view, because although we are great friends and partners, Moscow and Beijing have slightly different interests in the Arctic. The United States used to understand perfectly well that the Arctic is a common maritime region for us, where common tasks, risks and threats (environmental protection, biodiversity, search and rescue) are common. There was a common understanding that for Russia, the Arctic is more like the Baltic or the Mediterranean Sea, as a separate maritime region where neighbors need to interact," the expert explained.
The analyst added that cooperation between the United States and Russia has been developing more than successfully.
— There was a moratorium on fishing for aquatic biological resources, and a resolution was passed to regulate navigation in the Bering Strait through the International Maritime Organization. Moreover, we have no problems with the delimitation, except for one thing: the 1990 agreement on the delimitation is being implemented by us on a temporary basis, that is, it has not been ratified by either the Supreme Council or the State Duma, as there are disputes about its compliance with our interests. However, only one thing is clear: his denunciation and the launch of new negotiations with the United States will definitely only worsen the situation. Cooperation with the United States is possible, but the main thing is that the Americans stop viewing us as a threat and start treating us as a close neighbor again," Gudev concluded.
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