5 hours ago
Swift News
The Liberal government has extended Canada's NATO presence in Latvia for another three years, but it is still struggling to fill in the equipment gaps as the war in Ukraine rapidly reshapes the battlefield troops might be expected to fight on.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the three-year extension Tuesday night following a meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina in Riga, the capital of the Baltic country.
On Wednesday, he visited Canadian troops at Camp Adazi, where roughly 2,200 Canadian soldiers are serving along with 1,300 troops from more than a dozen other NATO nations.
"We know that peace can only come through strength," Carney said in his remarks to hundreds of troops who had assembled a display of fighting vehicles and equipment for the prime minister to inspect. "In the years since its inception, the need for Operation Reassurance has only increased."
The threat posed by Russia, which borders Latvia, won't go away quickly, the prime minister said.
"While you have long understood the threat of Russian aggression," Carney said Tuesday as he announced the extension of Canada's military presence. "Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine shattered any previous assumptions that many others held of European post-Cold War security."
