Today, Defence Minister Anita Anand concluded a productive visit to Brussels, Belgium, where she participated in the ninth United States-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Ministers' Meeting (DMM).
The UDCG meeting on February 14, hosted by United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, was an important opportunity for Allies and partners to coordinate military assistance to address Ukraine's current and longer-term defence priorities. Minister Anand reaffirmed Canada's commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes and noted that all four previously announced Leopard 2 main battle tanks have now been delivered to Europe and a Canadian Armed Forces team of trainers are in place training Ukrainian tank crews in Poland.
From February 14-15, defence ministers came together at the NATO DMM, where they demonstrated Allied solidarity and unity in responding to Russia's illegal and unjustifiable war. In light of the rapidly evolving security environment, the Alliance's deterrence and defence posture and its longer-term adaptation was at the centre of discussions. Ministers underlined the importance of addressing current and future security challenges and their implications for transatlantic security.
Minister Anand emphasized Canada's unwavering commitment to NATO and European security by highlighting our ongoing work to help strengthen deterrence and defence, through Canadian leadership of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Group in Latvia. This includes our ongoing work with our Latvian counterparts, NATO, and Allies to implement the Canada-Latvia Joint Declaration that was signed at the 2022 Madrid Summit.
To that end, Minister Anand participated in a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings and engagements on the margins of the DMM. Minister Anand met with:
- Latvia's Minister of Defence, Ināra Mūrniece, where she reinforced Canada's commitment to implementing the Joint Declaration to augment Canada's leadership of the battle group in Latvia;
- Spain's Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, where she discussed Spain's intentions with respect to contributing troops and capabilities to the eFP Battle Group and thanked Spain for its important contributions to date;
- Representatives from Allied countries contributing to the eFP Battle Group to discuss this crucial part of NATO assurance and deterrence measures; and
- Representatives from the United Kingdom and Germany, which furthered the discussion on eFP battle groups in the Baltics. Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom signed a declaration reinforcing their political commitment to achieve an effective deterrence and defence capability along NATO's Eastern Flank.
Minister Anand also further reaffirmed Canada's support to its Latvian partners in other domains of operations, including cyberspace. At the request of our Latvian Allies, Canada has a Cyber Task Force in Riga to conduct a bilateral defensive cyber threat hunting operation on Latvian government and non-government critical infrastructure. Cyber security experts from the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Communications Security Establishment have all served as part of the Task Force in support of these defensive operations in Latvia and provided further assistance remotely from Canada. These defensive cyber operations in support of our NATO Allies have allowed Canada to reinforce the work of NATO Eastern Flank Allies to defend and deter against Russian aggression in the region.
Finally, at the conclusion of the DMM, Minister Anand participated in signing ceremonies for three NATO high visibility projects, including:
- a Memorandum of Understanding for the Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative, which focuses on stockpiling and storage options to support NATO Operations and Allies;
- a Letter of Intent for the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control Fast Track solution, which will work to identify an initial, military off-the-shelf aircraft to partially replace NATO's airborne early warning and control capability when the current system is retired in 2035; and
- a Letter of Intent for the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space project, which works to integrate and disseminate Allied intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data from Space.
Canada is committed to enhancing collaboration with NATO Allies and international partners to provide and coordinate support for Ukraine, and to help the Alliance to deter and respond to threats more rapidly and effectively.
