Canada on ‘roadmap’ to meet NATO targets: Latvia ambassador | Power Play with Mike Le Couteur

all right so how do our allies feel about this joining me now is Polish Ambassador VTO jelski and laian ambassador to Canada Casper as oaly thank you both for joining us I’ll start with you Ambassador oaly Bill Blair announced today that the Canadian le battle group in laia is being scaled up to Brigade size that is something on the positive but Canada still not hitting their 2% spending Target how do you feel about that well at the very beginning uh let me let me say that we are working with Canada for 7 years already so Canadian lead battle group is in ground on ground in lvia for 7 years it’s the largest multinational Brigade which composes let’s say dozen of NATO Nations and in that sense it’s very strong political signal to any any adversity so our cooperation has been very smooth very good so far and this is what we expect also into the future as well so last year we signed the action plan on implementing uh decisions of Madrid Summit which was to scale up from battalion to Brigade level and so far we are going according according to the plan and uh and I’m looking forward of course to implementing it so next step what we are doing of course is indeed scaling up and I’m going tomorrow to Quebec to valcartier to be very well to departing troops the next next troop rotation to lva one of the one of the flights that are going out um and uh and say thanks to Canadian troops for what they are doing in lvia to thank also their family members for support to Canadian troops and I must say I I I must uh convey that Lan people feel secure in the Eastern flank uh uh supported by a Canadian le battle group as our neighbors in in the in the Baltic states and in Poland and also newly uh four other uh battle groups that are established after after last year in other countries in the east of U NATO flank and I I think Canada’s um contribution there and Leadership needs to be underlined and um and applauded as well but on the spending Target because everybody sitting around that NATO table uh is coming to the table with at least a plan to get to 2% so on behalf of ltia are you disappointed that Canada doesn’t have that plan well uh we are looking of course uh first of all of at own let’s say defense capabilities what we can do to contribute to our defense so we are not standing with a uh with a with the extended hand you know and wait support of the other so this why we are trying to spend uh adequate amount for of the money so we are lucky enough to have a consensus among the political parties and and Broad support of general public to defend spending and uh actual spending this year is um ahead of of our plans that we had uh at the very beginning of this budget year so if we planned 2.4% of Defense in this year so we are closer to 3% right now because we are spending money money as uh we are able sort of to sign the equipment purchase plans uh equipment purchases um to strengthen our own defense but also simultaneously to move along the um action plan as I said uh road map road map to implement the uh the decision and we are well on that road map so we see that the procurement decisions that have been made by the Canadian government are also well on the plan um according to the road mapap and uh we don’t see or don’t expect any any delays in that respect so my my let’s say uh perspective would be probably more narrow from from the Lan perspective and I’m happy of what we are seeing uh in cooperating together uh with Canada on on defense the what I mentioned already that is that we are buying our own uh equipment of course Canada is doing that as well on with regard to the um defense spending so there are several several PL let’s say several targets and one of the targets is to have to spend at least 20% of our of Defense Budget on procurement and this is what understand what what Canada uh is is doing and we see it uh we see it in lot as well Ambassador jeli your president Duda has called for a new floor for it to be 3% minimum spending uh because Poland uh is actually far and away or one of the one of the top Spenders do you think that that is possible at the NATO table when you still have some countries that can’t get to 2% well we’ll see what is possible at the NATO table uh couple of things are clear one of them is that NATO spending needs to go up and uh as you mentioned Poland has been leading the charge in this regard at this point we are at the level of uh a little bit more than 4% so this is I think we are number one country in terms of GDP we are surpassing even even United States um and this is something that we are pushing we are in conversation with our Adan colleagues we understand the political context so we are not you know sort of pushing this in a in a in in a you know sort of inappropriate manner but uh we are encouraging all our NATO Partners to spend spend more um the central eastern Europe including the Baltic countries Poland we are leading the charge in this regard and giving example and we understand that uh you know on political level quite often this is well understood in all the countries uh including Canada it’s when we go down to the social level this needs to be explained not everybody is uh is uh within or in in in the area of the theater of war Poland is ltia is our our countries are so the level of spending is is you know is obvious in our case but let me say that something which is also obvious for the experts Wars today are Global uh and the whole NATO needs to be prepared needs to as the polish foreign minister also suggests needs to reindustrialize and rebuild our capabilities in terms of production we want uh NATO to remain the strongest military Alliance there is in the world and if we want to preserve it then we have to spend and we want to preserve it because we want to make sure that also our economies our societies continue to flourish the way they have so what’s your message to Canadian officials as we head towards that NATO meeting celebrating the 75th anniversary of the alliance that’s coming up at the beginning of July in Washington DC uh well the message to to to to Canadian leaders would be uh uh continue the great cooperation you are having with our countries including on the spending in on the spending well we encourage Canada to uh to get more uh to to spend more that’s that’s that’s the message that that that we are pushing again with the with the understanding that uh different countries have uh different internal political context in this regard Canadians have lived uh in peace much longer than polls have much more than than Lans have and our neighbors uh but it is but you are you have the north you have China you have Taiwan you have uh you have your regions as well and you’re very strong at the Eastern flag so I would say Canadians get it um and um let me say thank you for that and we still encourage all of you know we are pushing Poland to do more uh so we are pushing everybody as well Ambassador o last question to you how difficult does it make the conversation around the NATO table when you have a country like Canada that is the only one without a path to 2% uh does it uh make Canada feel like they’re diplomatically isolated because they are the only ones that are on the table without that plan oh very good question thank you very much so I think I need to I need to explain probably we at the NATO table we are talking more like capabilities what we can deliver deliver with the money that we have but doesn’t that limit capabilities if Canada isn’t and everybody isn’t paying their fair share well I think we are trying to do our our best all of our countries and we uh as an alliance we work together some countries are smaller and regardless of how much do we spend we would not be able to plug the the gaps into defense plans as we have it in in NATO my let’s say answer to 2% is rather two 2% is somewhat discussion of the peace time when we do not have appropriate metrics during the war time we need to spend that we need to spend we have new defense plans that are adopted at NATO Summit last year we know that there are capability gaps we need to fill them we need to fill those capability gaps collectively together and then we’ll see how much does it cost what I see on our road map with Canada is what is fores scene for the for the Brigade it’s there in in the road map Canada is doing the procurement and we’ll be doing procurement what I also want to see is the defense policy update that was published later this year is linked with the NATO defense uh planning process that is starting starting this year and and hopefully uh hopefully we will be able collectively together to plug those gaps into NATO defense plans and make uh the presence of eight forward uh deployed battle groups or forward land forces credible deterrent to uh Russia so it needs to be credible to be able to deter any attack and deterrance is best defense and the Canadian mission in L probably for the troops for soldiers is the best Mission because it’s peacetime Mission and it should always stay like that okay we’re going to have to leave it there gentlemen appreciate Casper zal lych the lavian ambassador to Canada and uh the Polish ambassador to Canada VTO jelski thank you both very much for being here

Poland’s and Latvia’s ambassadors discuss NATO defence spending and the challenges behind Canada’s delay in meeting targets.

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