Kateryna Chornovol00:14, 27.02.25

American officials see Arctic cooperation as a way to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing.

Russia and the United States are discussing future cooperation. Officials in Moscow and Washington have identified the Arctic as a possible area for economic cooperation.

Bloomberg reports this . According to informed sources, this approach is part of a broader “detente” that President Donald Trump is pursuing in relations with Moscow. In particular, issues of exploration of natural resources and trade routes were discussed. Cooperation in the field of energy exploration is also considered a goal of the United States.

Both Russia and the United States have recently signaled that they are open to cooperation, worrying European and NATO allies who have sought to isolate Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

One of the sources said that American officials see cooperation in the Arctic as a way to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing. However, the source noted that this is unlikely to succeed, given how close Russia and China have become in recent years, especially given the “no holds barred” partnership since Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“The Arctic, surrounded by Russia and seven NATO members – the United States, Canada and the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – has attracted increasing attention in recent years as melting ice due to climate change opens up shipping routes and the possibility of exploring potential energy and mineral resources,” the journalists explain.

Kirill Dmitriev, chairman of the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund, said after Russian-American talks in Saudi Arabia that cooperation on energy projects in the Arctic was one of the “specific areas of cooperation” the parties discussed.

Notably, the Pentagon released an Arctic strategy late last year that highlighted the risk of China and Russia aligning in the region. In line with the policy of previous US President Joe Biden, the US sought to expand its military readiness and surveillance in the Arctic in response to the “growing rapprochement” between Moscow and Beijing.

(c)UNIAN 2025