National Defence committee  I guess my answer shouldn't exceed the four minutes you have, so I'll try to be quick. First, Canada is a key player in the Atlantic Alliance. It has always been a key player and continues to be, so much so that the alliance would like more from Canada. We've been involved in al

National Defence committee  Okay. What I said before is that Canada's influence within NATO will require more and more effort from us, because we are located between the European Union, whose security positions are becoming more cohesive and consistent, and the United States, which is what it is in terms o

National Defence committee  Yes, I'll try to do that very quickly. When I was there the relationship with Russia was not good. The NATO-Russia Council essentially didn't work, and we in Canada were not in favour of reopening that forum. It's now up and running again. I'm told that the discussions are not

National Defence committee  I saw a lot two years ago in the sense that national interests such as investment in national economies by Russian companies, be it in the field of energy or high tech, was extremely important and got in the way of our overall strategic interests as NATO.

National Defence committee  It's not good news, if I may say so. Someone asked me earlier about interoperability. It won't work, so there's a lot of, I guess, nervousness about this. I see a red flag there, so....

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, and thank you for the question. It's a very important question. The way I see it, there are three different circles of nations at NATO, and this is without regard for the amount of money they spend or the amount of money they contribute to the overall budget. The Unite

National Defence committee  As far as Canada is concerned, I will let the people developing our policies and our points of view on this to answer your question. It's not my issue. In terms of the Kurdish question and Turkey, I will offer a general comment. With respect to the internal circumstances of the

National Defence committee  We have to refer to the Montreux Convention, which regulates naval shipping on the Bosporus and allows transit through the seaway. This allows NATO ships to travel to the Black Sea and Russian ships—at that time, they were Soviet ships—to pass and use the Bosporus seaway. It's a

National Defence committee  What happened is quite simple. Turkey, as a member of the North Atlantic Council, and therefore an allied country, convened a special briefing of the council to make it aware of the events. The council therefore obtained the details that Turkey kindly provided. Canada, as a membe

National Defence committee  All I can give you is a very personal opinion, because I was no longer the Canadian representative at that time. I don't know how NATO reacted within the institutional framework of the organization. I can't tell you at this point what impact it has had on relations between Turkey

National Defence committee  Yes and no. It depends how you look at it. If you look at it from a strategic point of view, I think we want to keep it inside NATO. One of the issues on my mind is the fact that NATO very often will present itself as defending western values—not even western values, but values

National Defence committee  The issue of a world without nuclear weapons is put forward by allied nations. NATO, as a political military alliance, remains an alliance that will include the nuclear armament in its arsenal. There's no change to that. That being said, NATO nations are prepared to lower that th

National Defence committee  My short answer is no.

National Defence committee  Sure. Yes, why not?

National Defence committee  No, I don't.