(Ottawa) The visit of the Secretary General of NATO to the Canadian Arctic does not change Ottawa’s approach to continental defense, which is based on NORAD, insists Justin Trudeau.
Posted at 12:44 p.m.
The Prime Minister of Canada made a point of making this clarification at a press conference at the Cold Lake military base in northern Alberta, which he visited with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg .
Canada has traditionally been reluctant to allow NATO to meddle in Arctic affairs. This playing field is more that of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a binational aerial surveillance partnership with the United States.
Even if it occurs in a period of great geopolitical upheavals, due to the bellicose attitude of Russia, the visit of Jens Stoltenberg does not mark a change of course in this regard, insisted on specifying Justin Trudeau.
“Let me be very clear: Canada’s position on the Arctic has not changed at all. The defense of the Arctic in Canada is done through NORAD, where we have a unique positioning, where two countries, Canada and the United States, together ensure the defense of their territory,” he insisted. .
But with “Russian aggression in Ukraine and their geopolitical positioning”, the time “was opportune” to invite Jens Stoltenberg to the region to “coordinate” and share with him “what we are doing to ensure the defense […] western and northern approaches to NATO,” added Justin Trudeau.
To his right, Jens Stolterberg insisted that the Arctic was the shortest route for a missile attack from Russia, and therefore its defense was important for the entire Alliance. He took the opportunity to salute Canada’s efforts to modernize NORAD.
This is a vast project awaiting the Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand, who was also on the trip to the Arctic. In June, it announced a first tranche of investment of 4.9 billion over six years for upgrading the defense system.
One of the priorities is the modernization of the North Warning System (NAS), a network of 50 radar sites, 47 of which are in Canada, and whose capabilities are increasingly challenged by the arrival of modern technology weapons, including advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons.
The NATO Secretary General visited one such site in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, on Thursday, along with the Canadian High Arctic Research Station to observe work being done to study the effects of climate change on permafrost.