Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have committed assets to NATO's Operation Reassurance since last summer, including currently the deployment of some 250 army personnel situated in Poland. They have been doing joint exercises and training in the Baltic states, in Poland and elsewhere. A number of those soldiers currently come from Garrison Petawawa.
In addition, of course, I mentioned the Baltic air policing rotation led by four Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets last autumn, as well as the deployment of the naval asset, the HMCS Fredericton, in the Black Sea. They have also been on joint exercises with other NATO countries, and I understand they will be deployed to the Baltic Sea in the near future.
In addition to all of these things, there will be some very large-scale NATO joint training exercises this summer to which we will be contributing an estimated 1,000 military personnel. That's not formally part of Operation Reassurance, but it sends the same message: a message of strength, coordination, and determination in the alliance; a message we know Mr. Putin is hearing.
In fact, when the HMCS Fredericton was last in the Black Sea, Russian military aircraft flew around it and over it to demonstrate they recognized our presence in the Black Sea. As far as I'm concerned, the message is being sent that Canada is there and we are part of the alliance.