(Ottawa) Norad says Canadian and American fighter jets have intercepted a group of Russian and Chinese aircraft flying near Alaska.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) says the planes were detected and tracked Wednesday. The aircraft remained in international airspace and their activity is not considered a threat, the command said.
According to U.S. officials, this is the first time that Norad has intercepted aircraft from the two countries flying together.
Canada’s military leadership has been arguing for some time that Russia and China are increasingly present in the Arctic.
Arctic defence is at the centre of Canada’s new defence policy and the United States recently released its own Arctic strategy.
Russian and Chinese aircraft were detected in the “Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone,” located beyond the sovereign airspace of the United States and Canada. Norad points out that Washington and Ottawa require aircraft in this zone to be identified, for national security reasons.
“Norad will continue to monitor competitor activity in the vicinity of North America and respond to presence with presence,” Norad said in a statement Thursday.
China and Russia confirmed on Thursday that they had conducted a joint air patrol over the Bering Sea, which separates Russia and Alaska.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the joint patrol also flew over the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait.
Russian fighter jets and strategic bombers were joined by Chinese strategic bombers in the drills, which lasted more than five hours, the Russian ministry said.
The joint patrol tested and improved coordination between the two air forces, said Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry. He said it was the eighth joint strategic air patrol since 2019. He declined to comment when asked if it was the first such patrol over the Bering Sea.