Summit in Iceland | Justin Trudeau will meet with the leaders of the Nordic countries

(OTTAWA) Arctic security and the war in Ukraine were prime concerns for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday as he arrived in Iceland, where he will be a guest at the Nordic summit over the next two days. .

Mr. Trudeau will be joined by the leaders of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Leaders from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands are also present. His cabinet said his presence will be an opportunity to increase collaboration between Canada and the Nordic countries on important issues, from environmental protection to clean energy development and problem solving. of security.

The talks will come just over two weeks before the leaders travel to Lithuania to meet their NATO allies and discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

At the start of his bilateral talks with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Trudeau said recent events in Russia will be a big part of the discussions during the summit.

“We are closely monitoring the situation in Russia. It has become complex over the past two days,” he admitted.

Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led the troops of his private paramilitary group Wagner in an armed rebellion. His uprising appeared poised to threaten President Vladimir Putin’s grip on Russia, but tensions eased quickly on Saturday when the Kremlin announced it had reached a deal that ended the advance of Prigozhin’s troops towards Russia. capital, Moscow.

After arriving in Iceland, Mr. Trudeau discussed the situation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

In a series of tweets, Mr. Zelensky said he reserved the first of a series of important calls for the Canadian prime minister. He thanked Trudeau for his surprise visit to Kyiv earlier this month. He also added that he wanted his attention on the threatening situation created by the occupation of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia.

Trudeau’s office said the two leaders “discussed Ukraine’s current military and financial needs, as well as Canada’s contributions to strengthening Ukraine’s security and stability.” The Prime Minister also reiterated Canada’s commitment to support Ukraine for as long as necessary.

The Prime Minister and the President discussed developments in the security situation in Russia, which they continue to follow closely.

The Icelandic government has said that “societal resilience” will be at the heart of discussions at the summit, which will take place in a group of islands known as Vestmannaeyjar and will coincide with the 50^e anniversary of a volcanic eruption that occurred there.

“There is ongoing cooperation between these countries,” said Roland Paris, a former adviser to Mr. Trudeau and now director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, about the leaders meeting in Iceland.

“The Arctic is becoming more and more strategically important as the ice melts. Each of these northern countries has a very clear interest in ensuring the security and sovereignty of their territory,” he explained.

More difficult without Russia

The Nordic countries, including Canada and the United States, have interrupted their collaboration with Russia through the Arctic Council since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, which has seriously changed the portrait of the international cooperation in the region, underlined Mr. Paris.

For his part, the director of the Observatory for Arctic Policy and Security, Mathieu Landriault, confirmed that the situation remained “fragile”, adding that without collaboration with Russia – which has a huge Arctic coastline – , the Council is deprived of a lot of data on how climate change is affecting much of the region.

Landriault suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused Canada to “reassess” its position in the Arctic.

NATO is also paying increasing attention to the Arctic in light of aggression from Russia and China, Paris added.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of such threats during a visit to a military base in northern Alberta last summer. He then noted that China had proclaimed itself a “close to the Arctic” state and that climate change was opening up its access to the region.

Mr. Trudeau, who accompanied Mr. Stoltenberg during this visit to Alberta, took the opportunity to announce his intention to invest several billion dollars to strengthen the presence of the Canadian army in the region, in particular by modernizing the aging North American Aerospace Defense Command system, which also monitors Arctic airspace.

Paris expects Trudeau to draw attention to those same commitments when he visits Iceland.

“The fact is that we are behind in securing the Arctic in a world where this area will increasingly be a source of geopolitical competition,” he observed.

Several areas of collaboration

Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have all expressed support for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion.

All of these countries are part of NATO, with the exception of Sweden, which is trying to join. Canada was the first country to ratify its request. He also supported Finland’s membership, which was officially admitted in April.

According to Mr. Landriault, this meeting in Iceland is an opportunity for Canada and the Nordic countries to demonstrate their support for Sweden’s entry into NATO, which Turkey and Hungary have not approved.

In addition to a common interest in security, the Canadian government also has commercial interests with the five Nordic countries. Merchandise trade between Canada and the Nordic countries totaled $13 billion last year.

Canada is also home to the largest number of Icelandic immigrants and descendants outside of this country.

The two countries consider that they share the same ideas and interests on a range of issues, including the development of carbon capture and storage technology and the protection of the oceans.