‘Highly provocative’: US sent destroyers after stunning Russia, China joint naval operation off coast of Alaska
By Isabel Keane
August 6, 2023 9:20am
China and Russia conducted a joint naval operation near the coast of Alaska earlier this week in a “highly provocative” move amid the war in Ukraine that triggered a robust US military response.
Eleven Russian and Chinese ships neared the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska earlier this week near the maritime boundary Russia shares with the US, but the fleets never entered US waters, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The fleet of ships have since left, and were tailed by four US destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft, officials confirmed to the newspaper.
“It is a historical first,” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain, told the oulet. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
China and Russia conducted a joint naval operation near the coast of Alaska earlier this week.A spokesperson for the US Northern Command confirmed to the paper that the two American adversaries carried out a combined naval patrol near Alaska, but did not confirm the number of ships or their exact location.
“Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat,” the command said in a statement.
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https://nypost.com/2023/08/06/russia-and-china-sent-large-naval-patrol-off-coast-of-alaska/
