More than four months after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which begins a summit of its leaders in Madrid on Wednesday, says it is ready to undertake the most significant overhaul of its deterrent capabilities since the Cold War.
NATO leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, met to discuss ways to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We are meeting in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since World War II,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said upon arriving at the summit on Wednesday. “It will be a transformative summit because we will be making historic decisions. »
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address leaders at the start of the meeting, amid fresh Russian attacks on civilians in his country, including on Monday on a shopping mall in central Kremenchuk. of Ukraine, which killed at least 18 people.
NATO steadily increased its presence near Russia’s borders ahead of Ukraine’s aggression, in an effort to deter Russia from fighting with an allied nation. But if Russia were to enter NATO territory, it would trigger a war involving dozens of countries, because an attack on an allied nation is considered an attack on the 30 members of the Atlantic alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO as one of the justifications for the invasion.
G7 summit
At the summit of G7 countries held earlier this week in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Sholz said there was a need to “be careful in order to help Ukraine as much as possible, while avoiding a big conflict between Russia and NATO. »
Secretary General Stoltenberg has signaled that more troops are now required and that increased readiness will be needed to keep Russia at bay.
Canada’s main contribution to the front against Russia is in Latvia, a Baltic nation along Russia’s western border, where Canada has led a 2,000-strong battle group since 2017. Similar units led by Germany , Great Britain and the United States are spread on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO members agreed to create four more battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, extending the alliance’s eastern front to the black Sea.
Earlier this week, Jens Stoltenberg said the number of troops in these battle groups would double to between 3,000 and 5,000. The Atlantic alliance is also dramatically increasing the number of forces that would be ready to react quickly in the event of a full-scale war. , from 40,000 to 300,000, but it is unclear whether Canada will help to increase this military presence and the necessary funds.
According to David Perry, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, “it looks like the alliance is looking to make concrete announcements about increasing its real capabilities, about better preparedness, but we have to see if Canada has the resources for this”.
Prime Minister Trudeau has said that’s what he will talk about with other leaders in Madrid. “We, like others, are drawing up plans to be able to react quickly,” he said at a press briefing in Germany on Tuesday after the G7 summit.
In a one-on-one meeting with Trudeau ahead of the NATO meeting, Jens Stoltenberg still praised Canada for its contributions to the alliance. “It’s great to see how Canada is truly playing a key role in strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defense in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since World War II. worldwide in Europe. »
Yet Canada is already breaking its promise to NATO to spend 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on military defence. In fact, a report published by Mr. Stoltenberg estimates that Canada’s defense spending will instead decline as a percentage of GDP to 1.27% this year, compared to 1.32% last year and 1.42% in 2020.
The summit will also welcome new potential partners in Europe and Asia. Delegations from Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO, will be present, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, and the President of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, will be the first leaders of their respective countries to participate in a NATO summit.