What I have long argued is that we need to look at Arctic defence in a much more nuanced way. I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding to say that David Perry and I have a very different opinion on this. In fact, Arctic security and defence are very important, and we need to make serious investments, but we need to zero in on what exactly the threat environment is. What I have argued is that we are not seeing, and are not likely to see, a great power threat to the Arctic. Through the Arctic, yes, perhaps there may be a threat, and that is why we have NORAD modernization and the requirement for those investments. I'm arguing that it would be a waste of money and an inefficient use of our resources to build the Arctic defences in such a way as to gear them towards Russia or China. It would be simply an inefficient use of very scarce resources.
On November 3rd, 2022. See this statement in context.