Only the US Navy/Coast Guard can keep the Arctic from becoming a “contested space.” That was the message delivered by Vice Adm. Andrew “Woody” Lewis, commander of US 2nd Fleet, during a speech to a conference of The Navy League in National Harbor, MD, yesterday. “The Arctic is a cooperative area. But it will only remain a cooperative area if we continue to build those relationships — even with the Russians,” Lewis said, reported the Navy Times. “We have to work together because the environment is very, very challenging … and the environment is changing.”
“But if we aren’t present there, and if we aren’t continuing to build those partnerships, it will be a contested space,” said Lewis, who also heads NATO’s Joint Force Command Norfolk. Failure to maintain presence in the Arctic would “cede the space to the Russians or somebody else,” Lewis said, adding that it could also become a space where conflict arises.
