Latvia seeks Canadian support for expanded NATO presence
PM Karins sees need to discourage Moscow attack on the Baltics
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a private huddle with his Latvian counterpart on Thursday with a promise to bolster Canada’s military presence by deploying more Canadian Armed Forces officers to the Baltic state.
Trudeau did not, however, grant the top request from Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins: throwing Canada’s clear support behind calls for dramatically expanded and permanent NATO forces in Latvia and fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia.
“We do have to reassess the risk posture and how much we need to stand together against potential Russian incursions and aggression,” Trudeau told reporters following his meeting with Karins.
“And that is a conversation that we are having,” he added.
Karins had gone into his closeddoor meeting with Trudeau hoping to press the need for a dramatically enhanced military presence in the Baltics to counter any Russian perceptions of NATO weakness in the area.
Canada currently has nearly 700 troops leading a NATO battle group in Latvia, one of four such forces in the Baltics and Poland created in 2016 to deter and slow any Russian attack. The alliance is planning four more in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia
In an interview with The Canadian Press ahead of his meeting with Trudeau, Karins said the Canadians are performing admirably alongside counterparts from nine other alliance members, and that his country is grateful for their presence.
Yet he argued the Canadian-led battle group in his country, as well as those in Lithuania and Estonia, were created in a different context, when war with Russia seemed an unlikely scenario.
Karins and his counterparts from neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania have since called for NATO to dramatically increase the size and capabilities of the battle groups in their three countries by adding more troops and equipment.
The Latvian prime minister specifically called for “division-level defence” in each country that would include adding radar, antiair and anti-missile defences and other capabilities.
That would represent potentially thousands more troops across the region.
He also asked that the forces be made permanent, which is not currently the case.