National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I am pleased to have the opportunity today to provide you with my insight on Canada's role in NATO, specifically our two operations in Latvia and Ukraine. I will also provide you with some thoughts on how these military oper

National Defence committee  I have two more paragraphs, thank you.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. For example, the Baltic states, including Latvia, became NATO members, whereas others, such as Ukraine, remained active partners of the alliance as PfP partners. The dramatic events of 2014 in Ukraine over the issue of greater integration with the European

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. In addressing the threat analysis affecting Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces, I will focus today specifically on Europe and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

National Defence committee  She's sitting right back here. She's saying hi to you.

National Defence committee  I'm not making moral judgements. I was simply stating what has happened and why the Russians did it from their perspective. On the question of diplomacy versus a war option, this is a big week. We've heard statements coming out of Washington and other places that say that Wednes

National Defence committee  I believe Canada should stand for its national interests. Its national interests have been identified as supporting Ukrainians' territorial sovereignty. The issue of NATO accession is not just for Canada. It's a question for the alliance as a whole. That right now remains undecid

National Defence committee  A long-standing tradition of NATO has been the Harmel two-track approach, which was developed during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. On the one hand, we had a robust deterrent posture in Europe. On the other hand, we had a measure of détente and arms control negotiations. It

National Defence committee  Yes. Historically, Canada has played a very balanced role. We have a great history during the Cold War of maintaining this balance, being stalwart NATO members but at the same time being very effective diplomatically, in various multinational fora, to look at problem-solving. At

National Defence committee  We've been very active on Ukrainian reform since 1993. In fact, when I was director of military training and co-operation, we were doing that well into the 1990s and into the 2000s. There is a long history there. It was always at the top of our priority list back in those days.

National Defence committee  I will pick up on that, if I may. The Canadian effort, as I've said in my remarks, is fundamentally.... We're very Eurocentric in terms of our current deployment. This is very much part of our history. We've always defined Europe, and the current situation in Ukraine is one of

National Defence committee  Mr. Colby has outlined an American perspective on China. There is a long American history there, and I fully respect that. From the Canadian point of view, the European connection, for the time being, certainly in the short to middle term, should remain our priority. I believe

National Defence committee  On the Russian position, they are extremely serious now. The NATO enlargement has been something they have been arguing against since almost the very beginning. In the 1990s—in 1997 and so on—they were extremely weak at doing that, and therefore they simply had to accept it or “s

National Defence committee  Yes, it should be, particularly with climate change and the greater utility of the Northwest Passage. Canada was sensitized to this in the 1970s with the passage of the American ship, the Manhattan. At that point, Canada recognized that in order to enforce its sovereignty and the

National Defence committee  I would agree with Mr. Colby on that one. Europe and the Arctic would be very good Canadian areas of focus. That's where we've been historically, and I believe that it remains logical. The question is going to be, as is always the case, how much money we can put up. You, the poli