NATO Secretary General to visit Canada and discuss challenges to Euro-Atlantic security

This week, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to Canada to discuss global challenges including threats to Euro-Atlantic security.

Stoltenberg will visit Edmonton, Cambridge Bay and Cold Lake from 24 to 26 August and will advance shared priorities and discuss global challenges with the country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In particular, the Prime Minister and the Secretary General will discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as climate change and its impacts on defence and security, especially in the Arctic.

On August 25, while in Cambridge Bay, the Prime Minister and the Secretary General will visit one of the sites of the North Warning System – a significant part of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) – and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station.

They will also meet with local community and Inuit leaders, as well as Canadian Armed Forces personnel deployed to Cambridge Bay as part of Operation NANOOK-NUNAKPUT.

On August 26, Stoltenberg and Trudeau will travel to 4 Wing Cold Lake, one of Canada’s fighter bases, to discuss Canada’s contributions to NATO as well as Canada’s partnership in NORAD and Canada’s recently announced plan to modernise continental defence, including $38.6 billion over the next twenty years, thereby bolstering NATO’s western and northern flank.

They will also meet with Canadian Armed Forces personnel and hold a bilateral meeting to advance shared priorities, including ambitious climate action, Canada’s ongoing commitment to NATO, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, which will harness the best of new technology for transatlantic security, and the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, which is being established in Montreal.

“I look forward to welcoming Secretary General Stoltenberg back to Canada, where we will advance action on critical issues for Canada and the Alliance, ranging from international security to climate change and its impacts”, said Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.

“Together, we will continue working closely with Allies and partners to address today’s threats and security challenges, defend our values and way of life, and reinforce the rules-based international system now and into the future.”