(Riga) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged Monday to more than double Canada’s contribution to the NATO mission in Latvia.
Canada will thus inject $2.6 billion in funding over three years and will deploy up to 2,200 Canadian soldiers continuously.
About 800 members of the Canadian Armed Forces are already part of the Canadian-led battle group in the Baltic country, making it the largest Canadian mission overseas.
Prime Minister Trudeau also announced that Canada would purchase advanced weapons systems and was prepared to deploy additional personnel for crisis response, cooperative security and collective defence.
Canadian National Defense Minister Anita Anand recently announced that a Leopard 2 tank squadron consisting of 15 tanks and about 130 military personnel will join the mission starting this fall. This is all part of NATO’s efforts to increase its presence near Russia’s borders in response to the Russian assault on Ukraine.
The Atlantic alliance has doubled the number of battle groups in the region since the start of the armed aggression in Ukraine and plans to increase the size and scope of some of them into combat-ready brigades.