Trudeau visits Canadian troops leading NATO mission in Latvia

Country to spend several more years leading the battle group

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to commit Canada to spend several more years leading a NATO battle group in Latvia — news that will come on the eve of the alliance’s annual leaders’ summit in Brussels, and a likely showdown with U.S. President Donald Trump over military spending.

Trudeau was scheduled to arrive in Latvia late Monday, one day before he plans to pay a visit to the approximately 450 Cana- dian troops who are there leading a multinational force first announced in 2016 as a check against Russian aggression in eastern Europe. The Canadian-led battle group is one of four in the region, and includes troops from Albania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Germany leads a similar force in Lithuania, Britain leads one in Estonia and the U.S. leads in Poland.

Canada’s current three-year mandate is set to expire on March 31, 2019, but sources tell The Canadian Press that Trudeau is expected to renew the mission during his overseas visit, just prior to attending the two-day NATO summit, which gets underway Wednesday.

Such an extension has been widely expected. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has asserted numerous times that Canada remains committed to leading the mission for the foreseeable future.

“We’re not here trying to take an aggressive posture. This is about deterrence. We would like Russia to get back to normality,” Sajjan told The Canadian Press in January. “This will take some time. And Canada is committed for the long term.”

Trudeau is expected to use the extension to fend off attacks from Trump during the NATO summit that Canada is not spending enough on defence.