Canada is taking “positive” steps to spice up its defence spending and military presence in Europe, but Canadians themselves must take collective responsibility toward national security to counter growing threats from nations like Russia, Latvia’s envoy says.
In an interview with Global News in Vancouver, Kaspars Ozoliņš, Latvia’s ambassador to Canada, said “unfriendly countries” aren’t limited to geography as a way to influence or attack other nations, using every part from cyberattacks to disinformation. That requires businesses and civil society to defend critical infrastructure alongside government and military forces, he stressed.
“It’s not nearly whether you spend two per cent or five per cent (of GDP on defence),” he said.
“There may be an increased understanding (in Latvia) that it must be a whole-of-society approach. So we do plenty of planning and training and exercise (with) businesses and institutions yearly that has led to that growing acceptance and understanding.”
“I assume it is a relatively recent concept for Canadians, and something that should be understood slightly bit higher.”
As a former Soviet republic-turned-NATO ally on the front lines of Europe’s defence from an increasingly hostile Russia, Ozoliņš said Latvia knows the risks posed to democratic allies like Canada firsthand.
“I’ve lived under the Soviet regime,” he said, describing the “influence of terror” that preceded Latvia’s independence in 1991.
“The Soviet regime was much milder than it’s without delay in Russia. And that scares me.”
Canada leading NATO brigade in Latvia
The Canada-Latvia relationship is a priceless one inside the NATO alliance. The Baltic nation is home to Canada’s largest overseas military mission, Operation Reassurance, a multinational battle brigade led by Canadian troops since 2017.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in August while visiting Riga that Canada would extend the mission for one more three years, keeping greater than 2,000 Canadian soldiers on the border with Russia until 2029.
The Latvian ambassador said that, while the announcement was welcome, the federal government wants Canada to hitch the multinational division command structure alongside Latvia and Denmark to be able to streamline the chain of command with the brigade.
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That will require high-level Canadian staffing on the divisional headquarters in Denmark.
“We actually want Canada to hitch as a Framework Nation” that leads the general division, not only the brigade, he said.
Ozoliņš’s comments come just over per week after Carney’s government released its first federal budget, which might allocate $2.7 billion toward that three-year extension of Operation Reassurance.
The budget overall proposes nearly $82 billion over the subsequent five years toward modernizing and strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, a large influx in defence spending that Carney says will finally get Canada to satisfy its NATO commitments.
That cash also includes greater than $10 billion for digital infrastructure upgrades for military and Communications Security Establishment systems utilized in “modern warfare,” including cyber defence.
The brand new budget commits $28 million over the subsequent two years to Canada’s updated cybersecurity strategy, which calls for a “whole-of-society engagement” to confront cyber threats. Meaning engaging with all levels of presidency together with law enforcement, the private sector, civil society, academia and Indigenous groups, along with partnering with international allies.
Ozoliņš noted Latvia is on course to spend 4.9 per cent of its GDP on defence by next yr — greater than twice the extent Ottawa says it’s on course to hit.
Half of that spending in Latvia will go to defence procurement alone, he said.
“We’re fortifying the border line between Russia and our country, in addition to with Belarus,” which borders Latvia to the southeast and whose President Alexander Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia causing more ‘mischief’, envoy says
Ozoliņš noted the war in Ukraine has further underscored the danger Latvia faces as a bulwark for the broader European continent against Moscow — in addition to the continued need for collective defence.
In recent months, Russian drones and fighter jets have been reported within the airspace of several NATO countries in Europe, increasing concerns within the region of a broader conflict.
Ozoliņš said such incursions are nothing recent for Latvia, while also pointing to Moscow’s continued attempts to sow distrust in elections and democracy across the globe.
“When Russia is lowering the brink of doing mischief, using force or anything … it’s very worrying,” he said.
Canada’s recent commitments are helping to realize that deterrence, the ambassador added.
Ottawa goals to have a full cadre of two,200 persistently deployed Canadian troops in Latvia sometime in 2026, a timeline Ozoliņš said is on course and will be achieved sooner than anticipated.
“Defence investment may be very serious and takes plenty of years, but in that sense I feel Canada is progressing very well on upscaling the brigade headquarters to full operational capability,” he said.
“If we have a look at the pace from decisions made to implementation, it has been superb.”
The military modernization commitments within the budget, if achieved, shall be reflected within the NATO Latvia brigade itself in addition to in domestic military operations like Arctic security, Ozoliņš added.
Asked if one other multinational brigade much like the one in Latvia would make sense within the Arctic as well, Ozoliņš deferred to the Arctic Council of countries to make that call, but didn’t dismiss the thought.
“What we prefer to see is the willingness of nations to work together,” he said.
“You can’t just slice up the Arctic pie and say you simply control your slice. The very best approach to take care of the increasing threats is to work collectively.”
Public understanding of security obligatory
Overall, the ambassador said there was an increased urgency and commitment to defence out of Ottawa. He pointed to Carney’s Remembrance Day statement, which called for continued “vigilance” in an increasingly dangerous world, as proof of a shift in priorities.
He said all levels of presidency must proceed to underscore the necessity for a collective approach to national defence across industry and civil society to be able to gain support for continued investments.
“We don’t have the luxurious of spending countless amounts of cash,” Ozoliņš said. “We’d like support from society to confront these threats, and that requires more understanding.”
While defence spending was far outpaced by affordability concerns in an Ipsos poll on budget priorities conducted last month for Global News, the survey found support for investments within the military has risen since last yr.
Ozoliņš said there’s a growing awareness of the necessity for a “societal resiliency” amongst young people he speaks to at universities across Canada.
“I tell them that history just isn’t static, and that the speed of change is so fast that we will’t be considering, ‘well it doesn’t concern us,’” he said.
“In the event you think you’ll be acting when the threat comes, then that may be too late.”