US patrol spots Chinese, Russian naval ships off Alaskan island - Al Jazeera English

A US Coast Guard vessel on routine patrol in the Bering Sea off Alaska has reported an encounter with a Chinese guided missile cruiser which was later discovered to be travelling with two other Chinese naval vessels and four Russian Navy ships.

Two other Chinese naval vessels and four Russian ships, including a destroyer, were later observed moving “in a single formation with the Renhai as a combined surface action group operating in the US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)”, the Coast Guard said.

The Chinese and Russian naval encounter with the US coast guard vessel comes a month after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of China’s growing interest in the Arctic and Russia’s military build-up there.

The first recorded encounter with Chinese Navy ships sailing in international waters in the Bering Sea was in 2015 when a Chinese amphibious ship, a replenishment vessel and three surface combatant ships were reported in the area