Canada, NATO allies have to be ready for Putin’s ‘irrationality’, Joly says

Trudeau will join other NATO leaders on Thursday to co-ordinate the military alliance's response to Russia's attack on Ukraine and will meet with fellow G7 leaders.

Confronting an irrational Vladimir Putin will be a key task for Justin Trudeau and his European allies as the prime minister heads to Brussels, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Tuesday.

Trudeau will kick off a whirlwind trip with an address to the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, where he will stress the importance of both continents working together to defend democracy in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trudeau gave a similar speech in Berlin two weeks ago, and Joly said the prime minister will reaffirm Canada’s solidarity with a continent facing its biggest security challenge since the Second World War.

“There is a level of irrationality in the way President Putin is taking decisions. And in that sense, we have to be ready. We need to adapt to challenging times. And I think that also our military needs to be better equipped,” Joly said.

Trudeau will join other NATO leaders on Thursday to co-ordinate the military alliance’s response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and will meet with fellow G7 leaders before returning to Canada on Friday.

Trudeau toured Europe two weeks ago, where he held meetings in London, Berlin, Warsaw and Poland, and visited Canadian troops leading a NATO multinational battlegroup in Latvia.

Trudeau will face pressure to boost Canada’s defence budget, which according to NATO estimates stands at 1.39 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2021.

Joly, who has criss-crossed Europe herself in recent weeks, noted again on Tuesday that Germany has made a historic commitment to increase its defence spending to the NATO target of two per cent of GDP. The spending commitment marked a radical shift in German military and foreign policy.