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Beijing and Moscow accuse the US of misplaced and confrontational criticism of their actions in the polar region.

Beijing and Moscow have hit out at claims from the United States that growing cooperation between China and Russia in the Arctic could threaten regional stability.

Responding to a strategy report from the US Department of Defense, the pair hit back on Tuesday at the criticism of their actions in the Arctic, which Washington framed as being driven by geopolitical developments. With global warming shrinking ice coverage in the Arctic, offering increased access to shipping and fossil fuels, the polar region is viewed as increasingly strategic.

The US report, released on Monday, noted that Russia has in recent years beefed up its military presence in the Arctic, reopening and modernising several bases and airfields abandoned since the end of the Soviet era. China, meanwhile, has poured money into polar exploration and research to build a “Polar Silk Road”.

“Major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic,” the Pentagon report said. “Increasingly, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Russia are collaborating in the Arctic across multiple instruments of national power.”

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