The commander of the US Coast Guard’s Arctic District, Rear Admiral Bob Little, said in Oslo that Chinese ships sailed in maritime zones off Alaska, passed the Aleutian Islands, entered the Bering Strait and went as far north as the North Pole, according to Reuters; he was speaking at an Arctic security conference and said the United States is “actively responding to competitor activities across an increasingly contested Arctic”.

In July, the Coast Guard said it monitored the research vessels Xue Long and Xue Long 2 as they crossed the US exclusive economic zone in the Bering Sea, with the cutter Munro running Operation Frontier Sentinel — the first time this year that Chinese vessels were tracked on that route. The Coast Guard says marine scientific research inside the US exclusive economic zone requires prior US permission.