- The US intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers near Alaska on Wednesday.
- They weren't seen as a threat, but it's the first time the countries have been seen cooperating this way.
- It also comes a few days after Beijing and Moscow criticized the US' strategy in the Arctic.
North American Aerospace Defense Command said it sent fighter jets to intercept four Russian and Chinese bombers as they passed near Alaska on Wednesday.
The military planes — two Russian Tu-95s and two Chinese H-6s — did not enter US airspace but passed through Alaska's Air Defense Identification Zone, NORAD said.
An unnamed US defense official told CNN that it was the first time aircraft from the two countries had been intercepted together.
The planes were "not seen as a threat," the NORAD statement read, though it said that it would continue to track such activity and "meet presence with presence."
An Air Defense Identification Zone is a patch of airspace outlined by the US government that extends beyond the country's 12-mile territorial airspace, and where incoming planes are required to identify themselves and comply with additional security measures.
Russian aircraft have been regularly intercepted around Alaska, but Chinese aircraft far less so.
The head of US Northern Command, Gen. Gregory Guillot, told a Senate hearing in March that he expected to see Chinese planes in the region by the end of the year.
"What I have seen is a willingness and a desire by the Chinese to act up there," he said.
Most of this is purportedly done under the auspices of scientific research, Guillot said, "but we think it is certainly multi-mission, to include military."
The Pentagon's Arctic strategy for 2024, released in June, noted "increasing collaboration" between China and Russia in the region.
And Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, said at a media briefing on Monday that the US has seen "growing cooperation between the PRC and Russia in the Arctic commercially, with the PRC being a major funder of Russian energy exploitation in the Arctic," Agence France-Presse reported.
PRC is the acronym for the People's Republic of China.
The intercept comes only a few days after Moscow and Beijing pushed back against the US' characterization of their ambitions in the region, AFP reported.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said this week that the US "makes thoughtless remarks on China's normal Arctic activities," the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov criticized the US Arctic strategy, saying Russia is trying to avoid the region "becoming 'a territory of discord' that escalates tensions," according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS.