WATCH: Defence Minister Jason Kenney talks about the possibility of Canada joining a special NATO task force and what that would look like.
OTTAWA — The government may be about to send Canadian soldiers back to Europe on a permanent basis as a response to NATO concerns about Russia, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said.
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“I think we all agree with them that the strongest way of deterring, preventing Russian missteps is through a posture of determination and solidarity.”
That determination spawned NATO’s “readiness action plan,” the minister said, which has developed a new military formation called the NATO Rapid Response Unit.
The unit is 30,000-troops strong and is intended to respond quickly to both civilian and military threats.
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The deal is not done in Canada, though, Kenney said.
“We’re just scoping out options at this point. We’re far from making any final decisions,” he said.
Officials from the United Kingdom have indicated they would like Canada to join the response unit, but haven’t defined in which way, Kenney told Tom Clark.
“Quite frankly, I would not foresee large scale Canadian, long-term commitments in Europe, simply because we’re the only NATO country that doesn’t have a permanent base in Europe,” Kenney said.
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