Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to appear before the committee today and answer your questions.
Ambassador Angell has done an excellent job giving you a high-level overview of NATO, Canada's role in NATO and some of the challenges that we face. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to vector in on what I do at NATO, to give you some context of my function here.
My name is Vice-Admiral Scott Bishop and I am the Canadian Military Representative on the Canadian Joint Delegation to NATO.
Our delegation is a joint effort of the Department of National Defence and Global Affairs Canada.
I have several responsibilities, but my primary role is to represent the Chief of the Defence Staff on the NATO Military Committee in Brussels.
The military committee is the most senior of NATO's three military bodies and provides advice to the North Atlantic Council, which is NATO's highest political authority.
Of the other two military bodies, the first is Supreme Allied Commander Europe, known as SACEUR, and their staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, referred to as SHAPE, located in Mons, Belgium. SACEUR is responsible for the planning and execution of all of NATO's operations.
The second is the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, referred to as SACT, and their staff at Allied Command Transformation headquarters, located in Norfolk, Virginia, which we refer to as ACT. SACT is responsible for ensuring that the alliance is evolving and transforming itself to be relevant in the conflicts of the future.
In the military committee, I work with the senior military representatives of all of our alliance partners to provide military advice to the North Atlantic Council on a wide range of military issues. This includes the review and endorsement of the military planning undertaken by both SACEUR and SACT.
From a national perspective, I work closely with key stakeholders at the National Defence headquarters in Ottawa to ensure that DND and Canadian Armed Forces interests and perspectives are included in the military's planning and decision-making. We also work very closely with our Global Affairs colleagues in our joint delegation to NATO to ensure that we remain closely aligned on our national positions.
Defence diplomacy is also a key aspect of our work at NATO headquarters, and we regularly work with allies to gain support for Canada's views among the other military delegations.
Furthermore, our position at NATO Headquarters gives us a privileged point of view to understand the major issues that drive the alliance. We are therefore able to relay these important considerations to Defence Headquarters in order to inform the discussions in Ottawa.
In recent times, our efforts have been focused on Canada's active contribution to NATO's response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. We have also focused our efforts on the following objectives: providing input into SACEUR's deterrence and defence plans; promoting greater transparency and accountability in the development of NATO's capabilities; advancing climate and security initiatives; promoting the role of women in peace and security issues; and advocating the importance of innovation within the alliance.
Thank you again, Chair, for the opportunity to give you a brief summary of what I do. I look forward to addressing the questions of the committee tonight.
Thank you.