National Defence committee  Thank you for the question.

National Defence committee  I can answer this one. You've pointed to the complexities of a multilateral organization that works by consensus and where each country has its own domestic political drivers and shapers. We've learned a lot through Afghanistan and Libya. We shouldn't forget that these were o

National Defence committee  Thank you. That's a great question. I think it will be interesting to see how the alliance addresses that issue more specifically. What you want to do is to make sure you maintain the political cohesion of the alliance at 28. But you have to give space to those countries who want

National Defence committee  It's always dangerous to project, right?

National Defence committee  Particularly with—

National Defence committee  Thank you. NATO's been looking at Afghanistan throughout this period. It will be one of the focuses of Chicago and so we'll look forward to seeing the outcome of the discussions there. As you know, we discussed the ongoing commitment to Afghanistan at the last NATO summit, and

National Defence committee  Within the NATO context, I'm not going to answer your question specifically, although I appreciate your effort to reframe it. Within the current context, Afghanistan is on the Chicago agenda. We know that we've kind of all gone into this mission. We're discussing how we can con

National Defence committee  I don't know about any ask for the elite forces to stay.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may say so, that's what smart defence is all about—for sure. What NATO does—I think it's on an annual basis, Brian—is a comprehensive list of what capabilities we can bring to the alliance, and then there are discussions around whether there are overlaps or du

National Defence committee  NATO is a collective defence organization, a community of interest, and, as I say, a political-military organization. We tend to focus on those skeptics who say there's no military threat, so why do you need a NATO? Well, it belies or ignores the importance of the dialogue on the

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. Let me answer first, then Colonel Irwin can answer too. You're right that a smart defence is all about making the most out of defence budgets. Obviously, it goes without saying that everybody is feeling a fiscal restraint. In terms of the capabilitie

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for giving me those 15 minutes. It's always a pleasure to be here before the committee. I'm very pleased to be here as part of our integrated defence team with Colonel Irwin, director of NATO policy. As I've said

National Defence committee  Chair, I'd simply echo your comments that training is key to readiness, and the more training we can do together, the better, and the more ready we're going to be to serve together. As I think I mentioned earlier, one of the things we're going to have to make sure we keep our f

National Defence committee  Just to close out on that, you asked whether we're doing contingency planning. Defence departments and militaries do constant, consistent contingency planning. We're obsessed with contingency planning, so we're always taking a look at what's going on, where our assets are deploye

National Defence committee  I think the way we have been dispersed but brought together quickly, as you saw when you visited the folks in Kingston during your visit, has proven itself to be extremely effective.