Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our commissioners for joining us today and for their testimony.
We are now seeing increased near peer and geopolitical powers congregating in the Arctic. There's the build-up of the Russian military in their Arctic with more capabilities for protecting their Arctic sovereignty and projecting that power. We're also seeing China investing in their own People's Liberation Army Navy with heavy icebreakers even though they're not an Arctic nation. They're a near-Arctic nation and have interests there through the “belt and road” initiative and, of course, their interest in establishing their own strategy in what they call the “polar silk road”.
Has as the Canadian Coast Guard provided any input or made any requests to the Government of Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy?