Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to go back to talk about the NATO response in our deterrence. In recent weeks, the sheer volume of Russian threats has been head spinning. It's hard to keep track. We've had the drones over Polish and Romanian airspace. We've had Russian MiG fighter jets violate Estonian airspace. We've had a Russian aircraft buzzing a German naval vessel in the Baltic Sea. We've had, reportedly, Russian drones over airports in Oslo and Copenhagen. Just recently, in recent hours, they were reported over other airports in the region as well.
That comes on the heels, as Mr. Oliphant has mentioned, of the severing of communication cables in the Baltic Sea for the Baltic states and Finland. Norway recently said that Russian hackers broke into the controls for a Norwegian dam, opening up the sluices for fours hours before the Norwegians could get control of it. The Russians are messing around with foreign interference here in North America and in European states.
When I look at NATO's response, frankly, it seems less than coherent and comprehensive. I don't understand what our deterrence posture is with these repeated incursions into NATO airspace, and I'm not alone. I just looked at some of the headlines today. CBC's headline is “Putin is poking NATO with drones and jets. The military alliance is still sorting out its response”. CNN's headline today is “NATO divided on how to respond to repeated Russian incursions”.
We are a senior and founding member of the NATO alliance. What are we doing to sort out our position on these incursions and re-establish a posture of deterrence?