MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga was on CBC News with Carole MacNeil to discuss Canada’s military mission in Latvia, why the government was right to extend it, and the threat that NATO faces from an increasingly aggressive Russia.
“Back in 2007, the Russian government tried help destabilize Estonia. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, and then illegally annexed it. It then helped invade several parts of Eastern Ukraine,” explained Kolga.
“There’s a clear pattern of aggression here.”
Kolga went on to describe why the mission in Latvia is so integral to regional security, stating that “there’s a very clear threat to our NATO allies, certainly in the Baltic Sea region.”
“Having NATO backup their own domestic forces is essential to ensuring that there’s stability in the region.
Kolga also noted that, defending NATO’s North Eastern frontier is of particular importance in the face of rising Russian aggression. “Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin, over the past 15 years, has made it very clear that his primary foreign policy objective is the destabilization of the region and undermining the entire cohesion of NATO.”
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute has been leading the debate around Canada’s Mission in Latvia. Read our recent paper on why Canada is standing guard in Latvia.
