Mr. Chair, I want to move to the following motion, which I gave notice of in writing:
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on January 31, 2022, the committee receive threat analysis briefings prior to the summer recess regarding the recent activities in the Baltic region by Russia and the recent destabilizing efforts of the People's Republic of China in the Indo-Pacific region.
I think this is current. We want to make sure that, as committee members, we're always aware of what is happening in the world and how it could affect the Canadian Armed Forces and national security here at home. We have been receiving the threat analysis, and we're about to start the study on the defence policy update, which technically got under way when the minister briefed us on the DPU about a month ago.
Based on Russia's activities in the last two weeks in the Baltic region.... Some of us on the committee were in Estonia last year on the bridge over the Narva River that separates Russia from Estonia, and all the navigation buoys that delineate the border between Russia and Estonia were removed by the Russian coast guard or their operatives. They are disputing that line within the Narva River, which has upset, of course, the Estonians and others. Additionally, they tabled a motion at their foreign affairs committee, and then took it to the Duma in Moscow, that said they were going to redraw the borders within the Baltic Sea, which would affect navigation for Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and others. It would ultimately give them a clearer way to protect St. Petersburg and get them greater access to Kaliningrad. I think we should get updated on what's happening there.
In the Indo-Pacific, we see the People's Liberation Army Navy being very aggressive in the South China Sea, especially around the east Thomas Shoal with the Philippines. They've made some advances toward islands in the Sea of Japan that are controlled by Japan. Of course, after the swearing in of Taiwan's new President, Lai Ching-te, they have been challenging and actually entering the economic zone, airspace and maritime space of Taiwan in the Strait of Taiwan. Also, the rhetoric that has come out of Beijing has been very toxic towards Taiwan, and it's something I haven't seen before. I'm suggesting that we have those briefings.
For your consideration, Mr. Chair, when we call witnesses, instead of going with departmental witnesses or witnesses from embassies to brief us on what's happening, it might be interesting to receive briefings from some of the international think tanks, like the Royal United Services Institute or RAND. They have offices around the world, so they can provide their policy analyses of what's happening within those two main regions and how they impact the Canadian Armed Forces. Of course, we have troops in Latvia, and we're sending another frigate off to the Indo-Pacific as part of the Indo-Pacific strategy.