Russia accuses US of stoking tensions in the Arctic

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday accused Washington of stoking tensions in the Arctic and dismissed assertions from the U.S. military that increasing cooperation between Russia and China in the area could impact regional stability.

In a report earlier this month, the Pentagon said that Russia and China were increasingly collaborating in the Arctic, noting that Russia has reopened hundreds of Soviet-era military sites there while China is eyeing mineral resources and new shipping routes.

"The document is clearly aimed at escalating military and political tensions in the region," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow.

"The updated Pentagon strategy, which was adopted shortly after the NATO summit in Washington, indicates that the U.S. approaches to the Arctic are dominated by forceful scenarios to ensure its interests."

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that some of the Pentagon report's contents had a confrontational flavour.

Zakharova said that Russian and Chinese cooperation was not directed against any third country, and cast the report as part of a U.S. policy of "shameless meddling" in the affairs of Arctic states.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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