Canada’s Minister of Defense says that he is confident that the country has the ability to send soldiers to Ukraine after the war if necessaryrejecting concerns that the country’s army is already too overloaded.
The day after traveling to kyiv with the prime minister, David McGuinty coincided with Mark Carney’s statement that Canada does not rule out joining a peace force if the war ends. However, its commitment has raised doubts about whether the country may dispense with many troops, given recruitment difficulties and the need to maintain a 1900 members in Latvia.
“I trust the operational capacity of the Canadian Armed Forces,” McGuinty told the press in Warsaw on Monday. “We have just returned from Ukraine. We have been able to evaluate and see more clearly what the needs are.”
Canada is a member of the so -called coalition of the willing, a group of about 30 nations that are developing security guarantees for Ukraine that would strengthen any peace agreement. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared on Monday that he awaits a “base plan” based on these guarantees after this week’s meetings, and seeks the presence of large countries.
McGuinty emphasized that it is difficult to prejudge the result of the conversations. Canada is considering various possible responsibilities in case of an agreementincluding equipment supply and logistical and intelligence support, he said. His department is analyzing possible scenarios in Ukraine, McGuinty added.
Carney works to reinforce the Canadian army after years of shortage of funds and travel to Europe this week to strengthen economic and security ties. After meeting on Monday with the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, Carney reiterated his country’s plans to quadruple his defense expenditure by the end of the decade.
“We learned a lot from prime minister and his government, including the importance of contributing all our effort to NATO”said Carney. “It will take us for some years to reach the level of Polish commitment, but it is possible.”
Poland currently spends 4.7% of its GDP in defense, The greatest proportion among the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Tusk, meanwhile, celebrated Canada’s commitment to continue helping Ukraine during and after the war. He said that Poland has no intention of sending troops to Ukraine to maintain postwar peace, but plans to take care of logistics and protect the European border with Russia and Belarus.
On Sunday, Carney detailed the US $ 2 billion Canadians (US $ 1.4 billion) in assistance to Ukraine, of which 680 million will be allocated to equipment acquired in the United States . McGuinty said that Ukraine collaborated with the United States to elaborate a list of the supplies he needs and that Canada agreed to buy them.
Both countries also announced a cooperation agreement in the manufacture of drones, but made known few details. “Canada has a wide reservation of engineering and technology talent,” said McGuinty. “But we also knew that Ukraine has developed extraordinary abilities in the field of drones.”
During his stay in Poland, Carney also met with Canadian troops who are training Ukrainian soldiers, Part of a Canadian initiative that has trained more than 45,000 Ukrainian troops.
