(Riga) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told leaders of three Baltic countries bordering Russia that Canada will stand with them to fight not only the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, but also its cyberattacks on their country.
Posted at 8:34
“You are literally on the front lines of this conflict with Russia,” he said Tuesday in Riga, as he began his trip to Latvia with meetings with the leaders of three Baltic NATO allies, in when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was entering its 13e day.
“Quite frankly, you lived not only with the military threat, not only with the history of the occupation […], but also, with the daily use of propaganda and disinformation to try to undermine democracy and the values you have,” he added. ” [C’est] something that is currently being used as a weapon against Ukraine, but also being used very actively in all western democracies. »
Trudeau made the remarks after meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, during an expanded teleconference session with their counterparts from Lithuania and Estonia.
Canada leads the NATO Battlegroup that is part of NATO’s deterrence efforts against Russia, a mission that has taken on new meaning in light of the Russian invasion.
Defense Minister Anita Anand joined Trudeau for the meeting as a group of cabinet ministers fan out across Europe during the prime minister’s whirlwind visit to four countries.
Mr. Trudeau says the continued demonstration of unity among NATO allies and other democracies in support of Ukraine is an essential part of ending the crisis.
His arrival in Riga early on Tuesday came after a one-day visit to the UK for talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Latvia’s Freedom Monument and the country’s Foreign Ministry building were both lit up in blue and yellow light in support of Ukraine upon Trudeau’s arrival. The entrance to the Latvian prime minister’s office was framed by two huge blue and yellow banners that stretched over several floors.
Mr. Kariņš told Mr. Trudeau that the Russian invasion had failed “to drive a wedge between Europe and North America, to drive a wedge between NATO partners”. Instead, he said, the opposite happened and there was a “coming together of minds”.
Trudeau told Baltic leaders that Canada has the third-largest population of Ukrainians in the world, after Ukraine and Russia. “So we are deeply, deeply troubled […] by this conflict in Ukraine”.
But he added that the impact of Russia’s actions is extraordinarily difficult for their citizens because they are so close to Russia.
Later Tuesday, Trudeau will speak with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears the two-week mark.
MM. Trudeau and Stoltenberg are to meet at the Ādaži military base, where NATO troops are stationed in a mission led by several hundred Canadians.
NATO’s mission in Latvia is one of four such efforts in the Baltics and Poland, aimed at demonstrating NATO’s alliance strength in the region against Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is very offended by the NATO reinforcement on the borders of his country. He opposed the expansion of NATO into countries that once belonged to the former Soviet Union.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but was seeking to join the transatlantic alliance of 30 countries as well as to move closer to the European Union. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 after overthrowing the Kremlin-backed administration in Kyiv.