‘To Stand Strongly With Greenland, Canada Opened…’: Ottawa Makes Big Pledge Amid Fresh Trump Threat

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[00:00:00]I'm just back from Latafia where I was visiting the Canadian Armed Forces troops who are on the ground as Canada's largest overseas military operation.

[00:00:15]And in this moment uh where the Baltic states are on NATO's eastern front, Canada stands strongly with NATO and with the Baltic states. I just concluded a 3+ one in fact with the Baltic states to reinforce Canada's commitment not only to NATO but also to the Baltic states themselves. I also uh want to indicate that we are here to discuss uh several important issue come Um we're building up to that summit and obviously this meeting of foreign ministers is extremely important so that we can uh together uh ensure the unity of the NATO alliance. And in that vein, Canada is going to be working uh consistently throughout this meeting today and in advance of the uh NATO summit in Anchora on the defense security and resilience bank. That is a collective effort that we are uh leading as Canada was already the host of the negotiations for the charter. Uh those negotiations have been concluded. A charter is in place and now we are working on having additional countries join the membership of the bank. And just to clarify what that bank is, it is a pooling mechanism, a pooling mechanism for capital for small and medium-siz enterprises to scale up in terms of their defense production and manufacturing. And we believe that it would be very beneficial in order for supply to meet demand for there to be this pooling mechanism. Canada's already met NATO's 2% of GDP. We are on track to meet 5% of GDP by 2035.

[00:02:35]And finally, I will say that we are also here to express our solidarity in the short and the long term with Ukraine.

[00:02:44]Canada has put on the table $25.5 billion in multiple forms of support for Ukraine, military, humanitarian, economic, financial support. and we are one of the world's largest per capita donors to Ukraine to date. We've trained uh over 47,000 members of the Ukrainian armed forces. Uh we have an initiative to bring Ukrainian children home from Russia uh where they are being uh indoctrinated after having been stolen from their families. We will be holding a summit for the return of Ukrainian children in Toronto on September 28th and 29th. Uh to follow up on the summit that we held last week in Brussels >> with such a strong along the eastern plane. How unsettling is it for Canada or how difficult is it to make your own plans when the United States continues of being unclear about its troop presence in Poland and therefore also in the Baltics?

[00:03:49]>> So one of the reasons I wanted to go to Latafia and I was also in Estonia uh was to underscore the solidity the long-term nature of Canada's presence on the eastern flank. Uh, Operation Reassurance, as I indicated, is our largest overseas military operation and we have recently indicated that we have extended it to 2029. And so this is a moment where Canada is expressing solidarity with the Baltic states and in particular visav our brigade level multinational effort in Latafia and in particular as a former minister of national defense I would like to say that the cooperation between all of the 14 member countries this is the largest multinational group about on the eastern front front. Um, and we are very much uh together as countries, 14 countries working together every day to ensure the defense and security of NATO's eastern flank. That's in in my mind one of the most important lessons that we should take as NATO countries from the work that we're doing together every single day. could do it without the US.

[00:05:16]>> The United States is obviously fundamentally important uh to the functioning of NATO and we will look forward to welcoming Secretary Rubio today and to the conversations that we will have. We're also having a meeting of the A7, the Arctic 7 uh countries after the NATO foreign ministers meet and I'm very much looking forward to speaking about the necessity of cooperation in defending and protecting the Arctic region. We uh Canada opened a consulate in Nuke Greenland in February to stand strongly with Greenland and Denmark in their sovereignty and territorial integrity. But really protecting and defending the Arctic, especially against the Russian threats that are moving further and further north towards the Arctic Circle, uh is a collective effort and we need to ensure that uh NATO uh continues to understand and work in um defense of the Arctic region. And I've been speaking with Secretary General Ruta about this uh extensively I will say as well as the Nordic 5 um to make sure that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also focused on the North Atlantic and the Arctic. This is uh fundamentally important and we actually look forward to opening another consulate in Anchorage, Alaska this year.

[00:06:48]>> I'll come back So, let me just say that our relationship with Sweden bilaterally is extremely strong. We welcomed the king and queen uh earlier this year to Canada and I was fortunate enough to be able to meet them at the Governor General's residence. And of course, I had a bilateral meeting with my counterpart uh yesterday right here to reinforce and underscore the strength of our relationship along multiple axes and in multiple sectors. And so again, we'll look forward to continuing this work across all sectors. And at this this point, uh that's all I will say on that.

[00:07:50]What are your thoughts about Sweden posting this meeting two years after it came?

[00:07:56]>> Okay. Well, this is a great question.

[00:07:58]Okay. Because when Sweden was uh indicating that it was going to become a member of NATO, I was actually the Minister of National Defense at the time. And so it was at the summit in Madrid that we received the news that Sweden had decided to work towards accession to NATO. And this was an absolutely historic moment for all of the ministers and countries around the table. And we very much celebrated the fact that Sweden had decided to join and Finland as well. It was a moment of um great joy in the alliance to welcome two new members and uh I will just say now to be in this incredible um country and town it's it's a moment of unity and it's a moment of pride.

[00:09:08]Our work on Hormuz is very much focused on supporting the Gulf countries and the need for freedom of navigation and the support of international law in the straight of the Hormuz. Canada's working very closely with the UK France coalition and once there is a permanent ceasefire we will look forward to uh supporting in any way possible demining expertise uh other uh cyber and logistics capabilities that the Minister of National Defense is leading. Um, and at this moment, I'm sure we will have at this meeting today a number of discussions about NATO's role and the unity of NATO going forward. This is fundamentally important.