(Halifax) The war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East are the result of a breakdown in international law in an increasingly violent world, says National Defense Minister Bill Blair, who spoke at a global security conference in Halifax on Friday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 constitute blatant attacks on the rules-based international order, he said.
“In the Middle East, we saw innocent civilians who found themselves stuck in a war they did not ask for,” noted the minister, highlighting the “massacre” of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas, which also captured more than 200 hostages.
While defending Israel’s right to self-defense, Minister Blair recalled that “all civilians must be protected” and that the rules governing armed conflicts “must be respected”.
Mr. Blair is one of 300 delegates from around the world who converged on Nova Scotia to participate in the Halifax Forum on International Security, an annual event dedicated to strengthening cooperation among democratic nations.
Most of the conference’s workshops focus on the war in Ukraine, although much international attention has turned in recent weeks to the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli invasion in response to the Hamas attack on October 7 killed more than 11,400 Palestinians. Two thirds of the victims are women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Asked by journalists whether the support of Canada’s allies for Ukraine is decreasing, Mr. Blair assured that this is not the case.
“I understand that political discussions are taking place in a certain number of our allied countries, but I have seen absolute, unequivocal support for Ukraine,” he said.
The minister also added that it is important to remember that although Ukraine’s allies provide military and financial support, ” [les Ukrainiens] lead this battle with their blood.
“They are fighting on our behalf against a very frank attack on the rules-based international order,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian military is now struggling to consolidate the gains made last summer.
“Right now, it seems like we’re moving toward…I won’t use the word stalemate, but toward a more static combat environment. It remains to be seen what can unblock this situation,” he said.
Do more
At the forum’s opening roundtable, Minister Blair joined US Senators James Risch and Jeanne Shaheen. He argued that democratic countries must work on methods to supply more ammunition to Ukraine, even if their own reserves of artillery shells are exhausted.
“We can’t just look at what we have in our warehouses. We must find ways to resolve the ammunition problem,” he said.
The Chief of the Defense Staff, General Wayne Eyre, recently mentioned, before a House of Commons committee, that if Canadian troops fired at the same rate as Ukrainian troops, their reserve of shell would only last a few days.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, nevertheless called for a change in attitude among Western powers helping her country.
According to her, the goal is too often only “to help Ukraine not fail”, rather than ensuring that her country actually wins the war.
“If we do not have an ambitious common objective, we will not have a common strategy,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press, while urging Canada to provide more modern weapons more quickly.
Don’t forget Ukraine
The forum’s president, Peter Van Praagh, deliberately chose to keep the focus of the event on Ukraine, rather than pivoting it to the situation in the Middle East.
” Right now, [le président russe Vladimir] Putin is working to divert the attention of the world’s democracies – and their generous support for Ukraine – to other places,” he explained on Thursday.
“The world’s democracies must come together to end this multi-pronged attack. »
Later, Mr. Blair announced that Ottawa would provide $26.6 million over six years to establish an innovation hub in Halifax for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Her predecessor as Minister of National Defense, Anita Anand, put forward this proposal last November.
The aim of this hub, known as the North Atlantic Defense Innovation Accelerator, will be to promote cooperation between NATO military members and the technology sector, including emerging technology companies and university researchers.
Mr. Blair also announced that Canada will invest $188 million to design and build a new training center at Canadian Forces Base Halifax, the country’s largest military base.