COLD LAKE - On Aug. 26, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg will be travelling to 4 Wing Cold Lake. The trip is being made to "discuss Canada's contributions to NATO, as well as Canada's partnership in NORAD and Canada's recently announced plan to modernize continental defence, including $38.6 billion over the next 20 years," according to a media release from the Prime Minister's Office.
From from Aug. 24 to 26, the Prime Minister will visit Edmonton, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and Cold Lake.
While in Cold Lake, the pair will also meet with Canadian Armed Forces personnel.
"Prime Minister Trudeau and Secretary General Stoltenberg will hold a bilateral meeting to advance shared priorities, including ambitious climate action, Canada's ongoing commitment to NATO, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, which will harness the best of new technology for transatlantic security, and the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, which is being established in Montreal," reads the media release.
Discussions about shared priorities and global challenges including "threats to Euro-Atlantic security – particularly Russia's illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine – as well as climate change and its impacts on defence and security, especially in the Arctic," will take place during the three-day trip.
On Aug. 25, while in Cambridge Bay, the Prime Minister and the Secretary General are scheduled to visit one of the sites of the North Warning System – a part of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) – and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station.
"They will also meet with local community and Inuit leaders, as well as Canadian Armed Forces personnel deployed to Cambridge Bay."
The Secretary General last visited Canada in July 2019. Stoltenberg is from Norway.
Canada is a founding member of NATO.
"Since its inception in 1949, NATO has been a central pillar of Euro-Atlantic defence and a cornerstone of Canadian defence and security policy," reads the media release.
NATO operations, missions and activities
- Canada is currently contributing to the following NATO operations, missions, and activities:
- Supporting NATO assurance and deterrence measures in Central and Eastern Europe through Operation REASSURANCE. This includes:
- leading NATO's multinational enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia, as Framework Nation, since 2017;
- providing a General Officer and staff to Multinational Division Headquarters - North in Latvia;
- providing CF-18 fighter aircraft to conduct surveillance and air policing activities in Europe; and
- providing two Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessels to Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1.
- Supporting training and capacity building efforts in the Middle East under Operation IMPACT, including through NATO Mission Iraq; and
- Deploying personnel to NATO's Kosovo Force through Operation KOBOLD.
- Canada has placed 3,400 Canadian Armed Forces personnel across all branches of the service at a higher state of readiness to deploy to the NATO Response Force in Eastern Europe, should these forces be requested by NATO.
- Canada is providing two CC-130 Hercules aircraft, operating out of the United Kingdom, to support Allies' bilateral donations to Ukraine.
- Supporting NATO assurance and deterrence measures in Central and Eastern Europe through Operation REASSURANCE. This includes:
