WASHINGTON: US lawmakers have expressed new concerns regarding China and Russia military exercises near airspace of Alaska.
The development comes at a time when China and Russia flew strategic bombers near Alaska airspace this week. “This is a bomber task force … they’ve never done that,” Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska told NOTUS. He added the military drills were “provocative” and “an escalation” toward the U.S.
He also showed NOTUS a picture of a Chinese aircraft that flew near to Alaska airspace. “That’s a nuclear bomber,” he said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command reported that two Chinese H-6 bombers and two Russian Tu-95 bombers were escorted by Russian fighter jets over the Bering Sea on Wednesday, coming very close to the airspace of Alaska.
In a post on X, Democratic Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska called the patrol “unprovoked aggression by Russia and China.” “Alaska is at the front lines of America’s national security in the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific,” she said.
Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hadn’t read the reports about the military drills but added the situation was alarming. “I think there is a dangerous trend,” Cardin told NOTUS.
Senior senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, told NOTUS that Russians training near Alaska is not new. The military sees the Russians doing exercises in the area “often enough.” “But to see the Chinese with the Russians was unprecedented,” the lawmaker said.
“The fact that they’re doing joint bomber missions, that’s never happened before,” Sullivan said.
