Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Nunavut on Thursday alongside high-level international visitor, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in the remote northern community to witness Canada’s largest Arctic training exercise.
MM. Trudeau and Stoltenberg visited a military radar site in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, marking the first visit by a NATO leader to Canada’s Arctic. They then observed Operation Nanook, a military operation conducted annually by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
This is the first time Justin Trudeau has attended Operation Nanook, which has taken place every year since 2007 and involves military aircraft, warships as well as hundreds of Armed Forces personnel training in the austere Canada’s arctic environment.
The exercise was a staple of Stephen Harper’s traditional visits to the Arctic when he was Prime Minister, a period during which the Conservative government launched numerous initiatives aimed at strengthening Canada’s military capabilities in the region.
Trudeau broke that tradition in 2016 after being elected to lead the country, opting instead to visit China as his government began to shift Ottawa’s priorities in the Arctic more toward non-military concerns.
“We’ve seen a lot of investment in societal and environmental security, we might say,” said Trent University professor Whitney Lackenbauer, one of Canada’s leading experts on Arctic security.
The Liberals’ particular focus on climate change and Indigenous relations in the Arctic coincided with the belief of many countries that any disputes between various Arctic nations could be resolved through diplomacy and cooperation.
Some Canadian and U.S. military officials had warned against complacency as tensions between China, Russia and the West grew and rapidly rising temperatures made the Arctic more accessible to shipping and mining. resources.
The rapid acceleration of melting in the Arctic means the region is more accessible to allies, but also to enemies.
But Russia’s attack on Ukraine has finally upended those assumptions and forced the Liberal government to recognize the importance of defending the Arctic, said University of Victoria assistant professor Will Greaves.
“This really constructive and positive vision of a non-confrontational and cooperative Arctic is a casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Greaves, who is also coordinator of the North American and Arctic Defense Network. and security.
“We will now move forward for an indefinite period in a new Arctic context which is almost structurally, much more confrontational, and will have a greater possibility or potentiality of armed conflict. »
Government priority
Mr. Trudeau’s decision to participate in Operation Nanook with Mr. Stoltenberg is seen as a clear signal that the defense of Canada’s North is now a top priority for his government.
“I think this definitely sends a signal not only to Canadians, but also to our allies, that we take Arctic defense and security seriously,” said Mr. Lackenbauer. And that we are ready to shoulder our share of the burden of collective defense in the Arctic and elsewhere. »
Other indications of a shift in government direction include the long-awaited pledge to invest billions of dollars with the United States to modernize North America’s early warning system.
Some experts also pointed to the fact that CAF Commander General Wayne Eyre recently hosted counterparts from five other Arctic nations in Saint John, Newfoundland and Labrador, the first such meeting since a previous grouping including Russia was unofficially suspended in 2014.
The issue of burden sharing is tricky for Canada, which has always been among the laggards among NATO members when it comes to defense spending — an issue Mr. Stoltenberg will no doubt raise during his visit. with Mr. Trudeau.
Concerns persist about the state of the current system, including a series of radar installations dating from the 1980s in Canada’s far north that are too old to properly detect an impending Russian attack.
Despite this, details regarding the government’s promise to upgrade the North American Aerospace Defense Command with the United States are scarce. Moreover, there is uncertainty as to when work on the common defensive system will begin in earnest and what the results will be.
There are other needs, said Elinor Sloan, a North American defense and security expert at Carleton University, including modern submarines to monitor and protect Canada’s Arctic sea lanes, new maritime surveillance aircraft and icebreakers.
A priority of the allies
The Liberals have begun to fill many of these gaps, while quietly continuing most of the initiatives started by Stephen Harper’s Tories, but Sloan said it will be years before many projects become reality because of the system. of supply from Canada.
The expert and others nevertheless expressed confidence that Arctic security will remain a top priority for the government — if only for the reason that it is now a top priority for its allies. the closest.
“Its allies and friends in NATO are increasingly interested in the policies they develop and, in some cases, operate in the Arctic,” said Ms. Sloan. What is Canada doing if it’s not up there? So it’s not just the pressure from the adversaries, it’s also the pressure from the allies. »
While Operation Nanook has often focused on specific scenarios, such as responding to a plane crash or an emergency at sea, military spokesman Captain Jason Rheubottom said the this year’s goal was different.
“The mission of this iteration has a broader scope: to project and sustain forces along Canada’s Northwest Passage in order to demonstrate CAF presence and commitment to the region, and to enhance the knowledge of all CAF domains in the Arctic. »
Jens Stoltenberg’s last visit to Canada was in 2019, but Trudeau recently met him at the NATO summit in Madrid in late June.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister was in Toronto and Newfoundland and Labrador with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose visit was aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries on green energy.