The United States is strengthening control over foreign scientific activity in the Arctic, and the main target of these measures is Russia and China. Senators have introduced a bipartisan bill, the Arctic Security and Diplomacy Act, which prohibits vessels linked to the governments of Russia, China, and other “hostile states” from conducting research activities within the U.S. exclusive economic zone and on the American Arctic continental shelf.
The immediate trigger was the growing Chinese presence near Alaska. In August 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard tracked five Chinese research vessels near the American Arctic, including the icebreaker Xue Long 2. Washington is also concerned about deepening Russian–Chinese coordination: in 2024, a group of four Russian and Chinese vessels conducted joint maritime activity near Alaska, repeatedly passing through the Bering Strait. For the U.S. intelligence community, this episode became a clear example of how Moscow is trying to convert its geographic advantage and Arctic infrastructure into a tool of cooperation with Beijing, which in turn provides technology and expeditionary capabilities.
The bill aims to close the legal gap between formally civilian scientific activity and the actual collection of intelligence data. Scientific expeditions are difficult to classify as military activity, but the data obtained during them is fully usable for planning operations, preparing submarine routes, assessing vulnerabilities of communication infrastructure, and enabling future naval presence. In essence, it is an attempt by Washington to deprive Moscow and Beijing of a convenient channel of legitimate access to critical environmental and maritime data near U.S. borders.
At the same time, the United States has increased its own physical presence in the region. Since the end of 2025, the Arctic Security Cutters program has been underway, aimed at accelerating the construction of a fleet of medium icebreakers for the Coast Guard. Contracting for the first vessels began at the end of 2025, and in February 2026 the Coast Guard finalized contracts for all 11 icebreakers in the series. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2028, with completion of the final contract planned for February 2035.
For Beijing, the bill narrows opportunities to use civilian expeditions as a tool for legitimizing its presence in the region. For Moscow, the consequences are more painful: it loses space to demonstrate joint Arctic access with China to northern sea routes, which remains one of the last symbols of its status as an Arctic power.
