Mr. Bezan, thank you very much. That Pacific pivot got a lot of attention, and of course, as you know, our view in the Canadian navy is that we pivoted probably two decades before the U.S.
We have a balance of forces, roughly, between Admiral Newton's fleet on the east coast and ours on the Pacific coast. In some cases we have a predominance of a particular class out here whereas he has perhaps a few more frigates over there.
The bottom line, however, has also been not about where we base our forces but where we employ them. As you know, we employ our forces around the world, he routinely providing forces to operate in what one would consider our neck of the woods. I note that we provided ships from Victoria as recently as this year to the reassurance missions off Russia.
The engagement with the U.S. is as strong as it's ever been. You mentioned both elements, the U.S. Coast Guard and navy. I've met with my colleagues and counterparts and I've been in the process of meeting a variety of them, having just taken over, over the last few months, to ensure that we continue to be aligned going forward.
They, like us, have taken this case with the engagement in the Asia-Pacific and with the opportunity and the need to enforce rules-based order in the Southeast Asia and Oceania area. They've been really pushing further west in the Pacific. That lines up perfectly with what I described in my testimony as generating forward, us pushing forces earlier, faster, and further west, where we will provide maximum opportunity to government to respond to things that could be of a man-made nature or a humanitarian response, such as in New Zealand.