Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced on Thursday that Canada will send a Canadian Armed Forces general officer and six staff officers to NATO鈥檚 Multinational Division North Headquarters, based in 膧da啪i, Latvia.
The announcement comes after a closed-door meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Kri拧j膩nis Kari艈拧.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l be part of a first-of-its-kind unit in the northern Baltic Sea region to help plan, co-ordinate and integrate regional military activities that will serve as a continued and important part of our enhancements to NATO鈥檚 defence and deterrence capabilities,鈥� said Trudeau.
The prime minister said it鈥檚 an ask long requested by Latvia that will help to defend against threats to democracy and global stability.
Canada has already deployed nearly 700 soldiers to Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance鈥檚 Forward Presence Battle Group.
Kari艈拧 said the additional reinforcement is a 鈥渟tep absolutely in the right direction, and it鈥檚 very, very highly appreciated.鈥�
Trudeau said the two discussed the changing security dynamic in the Baltic region and the need to reassess NATO鈥檚 risk posture.
鈥淩ussia鈥檚 illegal invasion of Ukraine shows鈥it] is willing to make terrible strategic mistakes and act against all reasonable assumptions and miscalculate so much,鈥� he said.
Karin拧 told 麻豆影视 Channel鈥檚 Power Play on Wednesday evening that Latvia and other Baltic states would like to see NATO鈥檚 presence there move from a 鈥渢ripwire鈥� to an 鈥渁ctive, forward鈥� defence posture.
鈥淭hinking about our own defence, NATO's defence, what we need to do is to make it much more robust, we need to make it permanent. And we need to change it say from a tripwire defence 鈥� to an active forward defence,鈥� he said.
Karin拧 said in doing so, Russians would be deterred from attempting to advance elsewhere in the future because it would be clear their advances would be stopped from the outset.
The Latvian prime minister repeated this call on Thursday.
鈥淭he approach or the proper response of NATO is a political decision to, in a sense, up our capabilities to lower the probability of any such attack in the Baltics,鈥� he said.
Trudeau said these issues will be discussed further at the upcoming NATO Summit in Madrid starting on June 29.
