Defense Minister Anita Anand’s first official visit to the Pentagon turned out to be long on familiar diplomatic banter Thursday, but offered little public-facing progress on urgent North American military priorities such as the war in Ukraine or upgrading a badly outdated continental defense system.
Anand’s arrival – complete with a color guard, a brass band playing national anthems and a personal greeting from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – underscored the urgency of the geopolitical pressures transforming the world from Eastern Europe.
But the hour-long meeting and the subsequent 20-minute press conference offered no substantive clues about Canada’s next steps in supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia or about the urgent need to modernize Norad, the shared early warning defense network that is showing its age.
Read more:
Canada must be prepared for “all scenarios” as Russia continues nuclear threats: Joly
The closest Anand came was to confirm that the Canadians are helping train their Ukrainian counterparts on the massive M777 guns that Canada delivered to the fight last week. Both she and Austin also mentioned the eight armored vehicles due to arrive in the next few days.
Anand did not say where the training is taking place. Defense sources say Canadian troops are not in Ukraine, but are working in a third Eastern European country.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, say Canada has shipped four of the guns – props from Canada’s 10-year war in Afghanistan that can launch shells up to 30 kilometers away – from 1 Royal Canadian Cavalry Artillery in Shilo, Man.
Anand also cited the more than $8 billion in military spending over the next five years that Canada pledged in the federal budget earlier this month.
But on the question of Norad modernization in the face of an ambitious aggressor like Vladimir Putin and the growing threat of high-tech long-range missile strikes by Russia and China, Anand said only that “we will have more to say on this in the short term.”
“At this crucial moment, Russia is testing the will of Canada, the United States and our allies and partners,” he said.
“Russia cannot redraw maps at whim to suit its own ends. Russia cannot erode the rules-based international order without consequences. Sovereign nations cannot be wiped off the map. And NATO cannot be divided.”
The lack of news on Norad was puzzling to University of Manitoba expert Andrea Charron, especially since both countries have repeatedly said that modernizing North America’s defenses is a top priority.
“I really don’t know where the problem is anymore,” Charron said. “It was all set up for ‘Here we go Norad!’ and there was nothing.”
Read more:
Arctic at a “tipping point” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises questions: officials
However, Charron said she is encouraged by reports of upcoming plans for a new radar system that will detect threats approaching North American cities from the Arctic. The radar, to be installed in southern Canada, will cost $1 billion.
Austin, for his part, was effusive in his praise for Canada’s efforts to date, even if they seem paltry next to President Joe Biden’s latest supplemental budget request to Congress: $16 billion in additional money to support the war effort over the coming “weeks and months.”
“Let me applaud you for all that Canada is doing to help Ukraine defend itself,” Austin said, “including your extraordinary efforts to train Ukrainian forces through Operation Unifier,” the Canadian Armed Forces’ training mission in Ukraine.
“The United States and Canada are united in our admiration for the courage of the Ukrainian people and in our determination to help them defend their sovereignty.”
Both leaders acknowledged that the pace of delivery of equipment, training and aid is increasing by the day – Austin said it took only two days for the shells in the $800 million package signed by Biden last Thursday to show up on the battlefield.
“We are in complete agreement with our U.S. ally on the importance of getting the aid delivered as quickly as possible, as quickly as possible,” Anand said. Canada has a pair of heavy-lift aircraft operating out of Scotland that have delivered more than a million pounds of international aid to date, he added.
“This work continues every day, so we will continue to deliver aid, including heavy weaponry, as quickly as possible, and we will continue to work through the allied partnership to deliver aid in writing to Ukraine.”
Read more:
Biden to ask for additional $33 billion to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian invasion
Military officials have been warning for years that Norad, the 1980s-vintage system shared by the United States and Canada, is incapable of detecting the most dangerous hypersonic and long-range threats. The two countries have long promised to bring the system into the 21st century.
“We reaffirm our commitment to support Norad’s ability to detect, deter and defend against aerospace threats and to detect maritime threats to North America, today and in the future,” Anand’s predecessor, Harjit Sajjan, and Austin said in a joint statement last August, before Putin’s invasion.
“In particular, Norad must be able to detect and identify such threats earlier and respond to them more quickly and decisively, including aerospace threats transiting our northern approaches.”
-With files from Lee Berthiaume in Ottawa
2022 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca