U.S. increases its firepower in eastern Europe as Canada signs deal to bolster NATO presence in Latvia

The United States opened the NATO leaders summit in Madrid on Wednesday by putting some serious firepower on the table to bolster the alliance's defences throughout Europe while Canada separately signed an agreement with Latvia to increase the Western military alliance's presence in the country.

Whether it means additional Canadian troops will be dispatched to the Baltic country — or whether they will come from other allied nations — is unclear. The deal was hastily signed Wednesday afternoon and the prime minister's office has provided no details.

Both the secretary general of NATO and Estonia's prime minister thanked Canada publicly and through Twitter for its additional support before the agreement was formally signed.

The U.S. will be adding a rotational brigade of troops to Romania where a battle group led by France was recently established, and plans to further bolster contingents in the Baltic states, President Joe Biden told other Western leaders as the meeting opened.

The U.S. will also send two more F-35 squadrons to the United Kingdom and set up surface-to-air defence systems in Germany and Italy. 

Also, significantly, the U.S. will establish a permanent headquarters in Poland for the Fifth Army Corps, which will co-ordinate defence in eastern Europe in the event of further Russian aggression.

The measures announced Wednesday are on top of the existing 100,000 U.S. troops that are already based in Europe.

"In a moment where [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of the rule-based order, the United States and our allies — we're stepping up," Biden said at the summit. "The steps we're taking during this summit are going to further augment our collective strength."

NATO leaders are discussing what amounts to a two-step process to bolster the security of its 30 — soon to be 32 — members.

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The Western military alliance will beef up existing battle group deployments in the region, making them brigade-sized forces, which run anywhere between 5,000 to 6,000 troops. 

It also plans to have member countries put more forces — 300,000 in all — on high readiness to act as rapid reinforcements for the troops already in the field.

Both Britain and Germany, before the summit, signalled that they intend to bulk up their contingents in the Baltic states.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was non-committal when asked Tuesday whether Canada would add to its contingent in Latvia, saying his government was "developing plans to be able to scale up rapidly," but that more discussions would happen during the summit.