Utoo Radio with Other News Sources, September 14, 2024 - Russia and China are taking advantage of the chaos in the Middle East to hurt U.S. interests in that region by sending icebreakers to the Arctic.

Since July, China sent three icebreakers to the Arctic.

This is to increase its position in the area after a U.S. Coast Guard cutter caught fire.

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is an Arctic passageway that is mostly controlled by Russia.

The U.S. Naval Institute said that China has successfully used the NSR to bring Russian goods to Europe and Asia.

As a safer maritime trade path, many believe the opening of the NSR is good for business, but it's also a dangerous chance for Russia to take control of a key maritime chokepoint.

To make its national sea bigger, Russia reads the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in a way that most other countries don't agree with.

It also says that the waters around three big archipelagos twenty miles off the coast of Russia are Russian internal waters. This means that it can use them as maritime choke points and make illegal and overbroad maritime claims over the whole NSR. 

Russia has long seen the NSR as a way to get oil and gas from the Arctic to markets in the East and West.

Lawfare, or using the law to get what you want, is what Russia has done to protect its strategic interests. Russia has also tried to keep the NSR under its control by putting in place strict rules about pollution and ship safety.

The US and EU say that Russia's interpretation of UNCLOS goes against international law and that UNCLOS should rule shipping and transit passage in the NSR.

China has called itself a "near-Arctic nation" and has recently been making more icebreakers.