Joint press conference

Prime Minister Trudeau, Justin,

It is a great pleasure to be here in Ottawa and to meet with you. As you said. NATO was established by the Washington Treaty sixty-nine years ago today. So the 4th of April is an important date in the history of NATO. Since then, our Alliance has been a guarantor of peace. Providing security and preventing conflict. Because North America and Europe standstrong together. Canada was a founding member of the Alliance. And today, you continue to make vital contributions to our shared security.

Following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and aggressive actions in eastern Ukraine, NATO boosted its presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. And today, Canada leads our multinational battlegroup in Latvia. Your largest European deployment since the Cold War. When I visited the troops in Ādaži with Defence Minister Sajjan last year, I was impressed by their dedication. And by the fact that so many are serving so far from home to deter aggression and keep our Allies safe. Canadian jets have also patrolled the Black Sea region to support Romania. And Canadian ships boost NATO’s maritime presence from the North Sea to the Aegean Sea.

I also warmly welcome Canada’s decision to re-join our AWACS programme. We have flown these surveillance aircraft on NATO missions for more than thirty years. And today, we use them to support the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Canada also makes important contributions to NATO’s partners:

• Your support for Ukraine helps boost its resilience.
• You are making a major financial contribution to the Afghan National Army Trust Fund.
• And just last month, I saw how your trainers in Iraq are helping the Iraqi forces better fight terrorism.

Justin, we both agree that gender equality is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. So I also appreciate Canada’s work to keep gender issues high on the NATO agenda. And I am working closely with Clare Hutchinson from Nova Scotia, my new Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security.

And let me also commend Canada for investing more in defence. After years of decline, spending is now increasing.
And I welcome your commitment to further increases.

Today we had an excellent discussion on NATO’s adaptation, and our preparations for the Summit of Allied leaders in Brussels in July. Over the past few years, the world has become more unstable and unpredictable. And NATO has responded with determination. At the Summit in July, we will take the next steps. To further strengthen our deterrence and defence. Project stability and fight terrorism beyond our borders. And modernise our Alliance for the challenges of the 21st century.

Canada’s contributions to the transatlantic bond and to international security remain essential.

Just as they have been since NATO was founded on this day in 1949.

So once again, Prime Minister,

Thank you again for receiving me and my delegation.

QUESTION: Prime Minister, Secretary General, the only time NATO's Article 5 has ever been invoked of course was after 9/11 2001.  I'm wondering what the 9/11 equivalent would be for cyberattacks.  We know that Russia, China, other foreign actors, are engaged in cyberattacks in Canada, against Canadian targets, against NATO targets, and many citizens of our country and other countries wonder what is NATO going to do to strike back and prevent cyber warfare originating from Russia.  Prime Minister and Mr Secretary General, if you'd both add a thought.

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: NATO takes cyber threats very seriously because we have seen more and more cyberattacks and cyberattacks can be as damaging as kinetic attacks, and that’s the reason why actually NATO decided, not so many years ago, back in 2014, that cyberattacks can trigger Article 5, can trigger a response from the whole Alliance.  And we know that, at the end of the day, that will be a political decision when to trigger Article 5.  Our response will always be measured, defensive and proportionate.  Therefore, we will assess the attack and then decide how to respond.  And it's not always obvious that given a cyberattack that we will respond in cyberspace, there are other ways to respond to cyberattacks.  What we have done is that we are significantly increasing our ability to defend ourselves against cyberattacks, both in NATO networks, but also to help Allies improve their cyber defences.  We help countries with technology, with exercises, we have a centre of excellent where we share best practices and we have a team of 200 cyber experts which are ready to be deployed in different NATO Allied countries if needed, to help them defend their cyber networks.  So, we are doing a lot to strengthen our ability to respond to cyber threats.

QUESTION: I want to talk a bit about the northern border with NATO.  We know that Europe's eastern border is… has a lot of presence, NATO presence against Russia, but our northern border, Canada shares a border with Russia, Norway of course shares a border with Russia at the north, I know Norway has been pushing for a Northern Command to be established by NATO.  And, Prime Minister, I know there's been some discussion about whether Canada wants to see NATO assets in Canadian waters.  Could I get you to talk about what and when we may expect a Northern Command and NATO activity in the North?

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: We used to say that in the High North we have low tensions and I think we should continue to strive for avoiding an arms race and higher tensions in the High North.  At the same time, we need, as Allies and as NATO, to respond when we see increased Russian presence in the North Atlantic, in the North, with more naval forces, submarines, ships and so on.  So, therefore, part of the adaptation of NATO is that we are also increasing our naval capabilities, including in the High North and… but we do that in a way which is proportionate and measured, to continue to try to keep tensions low in the High North.  NATO is planning to establish a new Atlantic Command, which will be also responsible of course for the North Atlantic.  I hope that the heads of state and government can take that decision at the Summit in July and that will strengthen our capacity to plan, to exercise, reinforcements across the Atlantic, it will increase our maritime posture and be important of course for all NATO Allies, because it strengthen the wide link between North American and Europe.

The day after tomorrow, I will actually go to NORAD which is a joint command for Canada and United States, but that’s also part of NATO because that’s part of how NATO responds to the challenges we see in North America.

QUESTION [Verdens Gang]: Prime Minister, I'm Alf Johnson from VG Daily in Oslo.  On the sanctions against Russia after the… what is imposed, the sanctions and reactions, there might be a debate whether they are sufficient enough.  And especially after Mr… General McMaster yesterday said that, "We have failed to impose sufficient costs on Russia".  Do you agree with General McMaster?  Is there a need for heightening the sanctions?  And the same question goes to Secretary General, Stoltenberg.  Thank you.

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: Russia has underestimated NATO's resolve and unity.  As a direct response to their illegal annexation of Crimea and the destabilising efforts against Ukraine, we have implemented the biggest reinforcement to our collective defence since the end of the Cold War, including deploying combat ready battlegroups in the Baltic countries, one of them led by Canada.  We have more forces, more ready forces, and we also have increased defence spending across Europe and Canada for the first time in many, many years.  On top of that, we have suspended practical cooperation and we saw after the Salisbury incident, or attack, that NATO Allies and partners, in a coordinated way, decided to expel many diplomats from several NATO Allied countries.  If you add to that, that also NATO Allies are part of economic sanctions, which has proven to be very resilient, I think it's obvious that Russia has underestimate the unity and the resolve, the strength, of the response from NATO and NATO Allies to their reckless behaviour, which was have seen especially since Crimea, Ukraine, 2014, and what has happened since then.

I would like to commend Canada for being a leader in the efforts to protect a rules based order, to protect strong international institutions, and especially in times with more uncertainty, more unpredictability, we need strong institutions as the UN, but also as NATO, to try to prevent conflict and to defuse tensions.

QUESTION [Verdens Gang]: If I can ask a following question, is there anything in the preparations for the NATO Summit this summer that could indicate that NATO countries are working on harsher sanctions than what we see today?

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: Well, it's not for NATO to decide on the economic sanctions.  That’s for the EU, for individual Allies and the US and so on, to make decisions on the economic sanctions.  But of course we discuss also these issues in the NATO family and we will just closely follow and assess the situation and we'll do what is needed.  At the same time, we are not… we don’t want a new Cold War, we don’t want a new arms race, so we are focused on how can we respond in a firm, strong, predictable, but also measured and defensive way.  Russia is there to stay, Russia is our neighbour, so we will be continue to strive for a more constructive relationship with Russia.

MODERATOR: Last question.

QUESTION [CBC News]: Prime Minister, Secretary General, thank you for taking our questions.  Murray Brewster with CBC News.  Secretary General, Russia conducted missile testing in the Baltics and apparently closed some airspace today, and I'm wondering how you view that in light of the meeting that took place at the White House yesterday and how that squares with your stated intention of having eventually better relations with Russia?

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: Every nation, also Russia, has the right to exercise its forces.  But we will of course follow Russia's exercises closely and we stay vigilant and we are also increasing the readiness of our forces, especially in the Baltic region, where we have deployed combat or battle troops already.  What we see is that this takes place as part of a pattern of behaviour of a more assertive Russia which has invested heavily in new military equipment, modernised their forces, which are exercising more including with nuclear forces, integrating exercises with nuclear capabilities with conventional capabilities, and also actually have been willing to use military force against a neighbour, against Ukraine, and which provides support to the Assad regime in Syria.  So, this is part… and then is responsible for cyberattacks and meddling in our national democratic processes.  So, this is part of a broader picture and that’s the picture, that’s the pattern which NATO has already responded to with high readiness armed forces, with the deployment in the eastern part of the Alliance, with increased defence spending and with more exercises and also strengthening our cyber defences.