Canada shuns Arctic military exercise

OTTAWA | Canadian Defense will send just ten people to participate in NATO’s largest Arctic defense exercise, which will bring together more than 30,000 soldiers in the coming days in Norway.

• Read also: Russian invasion: a call for help to defend the Arctic

• Read also: Could Russia attack Canada from the Arctic?

“It’s ridiculous,” protested Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus. It is the demonstration of our disengagement in the North. »

This large military gathering called Cold Response takes place every two years. This year, it will bring together more than 30,000 soldiers from 23 NATO countries, and several observers.

In the past, Canada has sent large delegations to Cold Response: 500 soldiers in 2012 and nearly 400 in 2016, recalls Mr. Paul-Hus. Himself a former soldier, he explains that this type of exercise is essential to ensure that all NATO members understand each other and learn to coordinate.

Other current exercises

The objective is “to increase their interoperability at the tactical, operational and strategic levels”, confirms the Department of Defense Communications, which explains prioritizing the exercises in which the forces participate “as needed”.

The department says Canada sent 2,000 personnel to another NATO exercise in Norway in 2018 and 400 these days to other exercises in Alaska alongside the US military.

But Mr. Paul-Hus is worried about the image sent to our allies by ignoring NATO’s most important northern exercise.

“That a great Nordic country like Canada does that is a big slap in the face of our allies,” he said.

“The North is our territory and we rely on our neighbors to defend us,” laments a former navy captain who spoke to the Newspaper on condition of anonymity.

Lack of staff

He points out that in addition to lacking the equipment to fully cover this difficult region, the army is understaffed, a problem that the scandals of recent months affecting the general staff have worsened.

Cold Response has been planned for months. The exercise therefore has no connection with the war in Ukraine which is currently taking place.

But the Russian army indicated, shortly after launching the invasion, that it will not participate as an observer in the deployment, contrary to its habit.

Instead, she started her own training in the industry.

The Cold Response exercise in brief

• Who : 30,000 soldiers from 27 countries in Europe and North America on land, at sea and in the air
• Or : Norway and surrounding seas
• When : March and April
• Why : Preparing allies to work together in northern conditions

Sources: NATO and Norwegian Armed Forces

Russia is in the North to defend its interests

The Arctic represents Russia’s economic future. This is why Vladimir Putin is massing a third of his nuclear forces there: he defends natural resources and strategic maritime routes there.

“The Russian economy is based on oil and gas and most of the conventional deposits in the south of the country are being exhausted. What Russia has left is in the Arctic,” says Rebecca Pincus of the US Naval War College in Rhode Island.

These resources are increasingly accessible due to global warming, says Professor Pincus. Last month, the Arctic was globally 4 degrees Celsius warmer than in February 1980.

Sea routes

The melting ice is also opening up new maritime routes: the Northwest Passage, along the Canadian coast, and the Northeast Passage, along the Russian coast, as well as the Transpolair Passage.

This straight line, also called the Center Passage, is frozen for now, but China expects it to be free in the summer by 2050.

Thanks to these three new maritime routes, freight between Asia and Europe should be reduced by two to three weeks compared to the current route which depends on the Suez Canal.

By massing troops in the area, Moscow ensures that traffic along these corridors is controlled. Its presence is therefore at first sight defensive.

“But it’s Russia,” breathes Ms. Pincus. If they had swelled their forces without attacking Ukraine, there would be no need to worry, but now we cannot ignore what is happening. »

Developing the North

For Andrea Charron, of the Center for Defense and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada must ensure that it has strong northern communities in order to face the Russians.

“It’s too expensive to build infrastructure in the North just for single use, military or civilian,” she says. She points out that access to high-speed internet, housing and health services would benefit everyone and allow the territory to be occupied.