China and Russia have seemingly continued their unabated efforts to spy on the United States and Canada after the NORAD, or North American Aerospace Defense Command, intercepted aircraft from the two Eastern powers over the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
According to NORAD’s report, its own jets, scrambled from both the air forces of the U.S. and Canada, detected, tracked, and intercepted two TU-95 military aircraft from Russia along with PRC H-6 jets from China. NORAD reported that the four jets remained in international airspace and did not enter Canada’s or the U.S.’ airspace, adding that the activity was “not seen as a threat”.
The incident is the first time Chinese military aircraft has been intercepted near Alaska, and is also the first time Chinese and Russian military aircraft have been known to fly in tandem in the area.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. is “not surprised” at the actions of Russia and China in this regard, despite it being the first of its kind intercepted close to U.S. and Canada’s airspace. The U.S. defense secretary said that the Russian and Chinese military are “testing” and “challenging” U.S. military capabilities. Lloyd stressed that NORAD’s response is a testament to the U.S. excellent surveillance capability and indicates that the country’s forces “are at the ready all the time”.
Officials from China published an official confirmation of the incident, which the Chinese government called a “joint strategic aerial patrol in the relevant airspace of the Bering Sea”. The exercise was supposedly conducted as part of Russia and China’s military cooperation agreement that sees such exercises conducted annually. China’s Defense Ministry, through its spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang, stressed that the exercise was conducted in accordance with “relevant international laws and international practices.” Russian officials largely echoed the statement their counterparts from China, also stressing that the exercise was purely a part of the two countries’ military cooperation and coordination agreements and was not targeted towards a third country.
