First Sea Lord warns China will exploit thawing Arctic sea routes

[Gerald]

The head of the UK Royal Navy First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin has warned that China could exploit once-frozen sea passages to reach the North Atlantic, posing a strategic threat to the UK.

Speaking onboard the Royal Navy’s second Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, the First Sea Lord warned that the thawing of ice in the Arctic region due to global warming would make China a strategic threat to the UK.

Radakin told an audience of reporters: “Climate change is a concern for all of us, but it is opening up new maritime trade routes across the top of the world, halving the transit time between Europe and Asia. And we sit at the gateway to those routes.

“But when China sails its growing Navy into the Atlantic, which way will it come – the long route, or the short?”

https://www.naval-technology.com/fea...ic-sea-routes/

Of course, these are important and strategic sea routes across the Arctic, several players need safe routes in the event of external threats in the immediate environment.