After years of Canada’s allies politely suggesting that the Canadian Armed Forces should try being less of an underfunded disaster, there are signs that they’re getting increasingly impatient with the request.
At a meeting last week of NATO foreign ministers, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg threw out a thinly veiled slam at Canada, saying they will be looking to “ensure that allies are investing enough in defence.”
As the old saying goes, there are some things one must never discuss in polite company. Politics and money usually top the list.
If you’ve ever been to a NATO leaders’ summit, you know these gatherings are the epitome of polite company (with the exception of Donald Trump).
NATO leaders — at least in public — sometimes go far, far out of their way to avoid criticizing other leaders and nations, especially those who are perceived as not pulling their weight.
Finland formally became the 31st member of Nato this week, ditching decades of non-alignment to join the military alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The country has spent decades building and maintaining a fighting force to guard its 832 mile frontier with Russia and deter any invasion.
With hundreds of tanks, dozens of aircraft and the ability to call on large numbers of reservists, the Finnish military has long been one of the most powerful in Europe and is now one of the most capable in Nato.
Pretty impressive but I don’t see any transvestites.
On January 21, far-right provocateur Rasmus Paludan travelled from Denmark to Sweden to set the holy book of Islam alight in what appeared to be a one-man show in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
The act sent shockwaves across large parts of the Muslim world, sparking mass protests in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and of course in Turkey, where anti-Sweden rallies grew so violent that the Swedish embassy in Ankara was briefly forced to close.
BRUSSELS — Add NATO’s military planners to the list of those concerned about having enough shells.
In the coming months, the alliance will accelerate efforts to stockpile equipment along the alliance’s eastern edge and designate tens of thousands of forces that can rush to allies’ aid on short notice — a move meant to stop Russia from expanding its war beyond Ukraine.
To make that happen, though, NATO must convince individual countries to contribute various elements: Soldiers, training, better infrastructure — and, most notably, extensive amounts of pricey weapons, equipment and ammunition.
BRUSSELS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the greatest challenge to European security since the end of the Cold War, but the Europeans have missed the opportunity to step up their own defense, diplomats and experts say. Instead, the war has reinforced Europe’s military dependence on the United States.
Washington, they note, has led the response to the war, marshaled allies, organized military aid to Ukraine and contributed by far the largest amount of military equipment and intelligence to Ukraine. It has decided at each step what kind of weapons Kyiv will receive and what it will not.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkey won’t allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as the Scandinavian country permits protests desecrating Islam’s holy book to take place.
Turkey, which had already been holding off approving Sweden and Finland’s membership in the Western military alliance, has been infuriated by a series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm. In one case a solitary anti-Islam activist burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, while in an unconnected protest an effigy of Erdogan was hanged. Even before that, Ankara had been pressing Sweden and Finland to crack down on exiled members of Kurdish and other groups it sees as terrorists, and to allow arms sales to Turkey.
Chang Frick, who wore Putin T-shirt, paid admin fee for protest that has put Sweden’s Nato bid in doubt
A far-Right journalist with links to the Kremlin organised the Quran-burning stunt that has threatened Sweden’s attempt to join Nato.
Chang Frick, who has previously worked for Russia Today (RT) and sister agency Ruptly, paid the administrative fee for the demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm where Rasmus Paludan torched the holy book.
Mr Frick’s Twitter feed includes pictures of him posing in a Putin t-shirt and showing off a Putin calendar.
A crowd gathered outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm on Saturday afternoon to watch far-right politician Rasmus Paludan burn the Quran. Paludan, who leads the anti-Islam ‘Hard Line’ Danish party, was watched by dozens of photographers, police officers and bemused passers-by. Paludan is no stranger to controversy: he has previously been convicted under racism and defamation law. This latest stunt was called to show his party’s opposition to immigration and, he says, to stand up for free speech. Now, though, the stunt has become a diplomatic crisis for Sweden – and there are fears that its bid to join Nato could go up in smoke.
With the passage of the ludicrous omnibus bill the total amount spent and committed to be spent by the United States in Ukraine since the Russian invasion is in excess of $110 Billion. That amount exceeds the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 130 nations. Further, only America and its chief adversaries China ($239 Billion) and Russia ($154 Billion) spend more per year on their defense budgets.
During this same period of time the 27 nations of the European Union plus Great Britain have spent or committed to spend $36 Billion in Ukraine or half of what the taxpayers in the United States have been obligated to contribute.
Are Jagmeet and Justin splitting up? Don’t tell the kids but it looks like the parental units in the Liberal-NDP coalition family are fighting just before Christmas.
Jagmeet knows he’s regarded as Justin’s waterboy, this little pantomime lets him feel important.
EU leaders are reconsidering their approach to Russia
Warmer-than-average temperatures may have spared Europe from the worst effects of the energy crisis, but that is about to change: with temperatures predicted to plummet in the coming weeks, heightened demand for dwindling (and very expensive) supplies of natural gas will seriously test Europe’s fragile energy networks — potentially to breaking point.
In Germany, the Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance recently issued a near-apocalyptic advisory telling people what to expect in the event of a blackout: “The telephone is dead, the heating doesn’t come on, there is no warm water, the computer goes on strike, the coffee machine stays off, there is no light.” The agency urged households to stock up on battery-powered flashlights and candles, and even suggested camp stoves to prepare small meals. Elsewhere in Europe, governments are preparing food distribution networks that can function through a blackout.
For many officials, it’s a topic they won’t touch. When pressed, politicians give memorized, terse and robotic answers.
The verboten subject? Ukraine’s potential NATO membership.
It’s an issue so potentially combustible that many NATO allies try to avoid even talking about it. When Ukraine in September requested an accelerated process to join the military alliance, NATO publicly reiterated its open-door policy but didn’t give a concrete response. And last week, when NATO foreign ministers met, their final statement simply pointed to a vague 2008 pledge that Ukraine would someday join the club.
After Russia annexed four regions of Ukraine in September amid its ongoing invasion of the eastern European country, Ukraine announced it had signed an accelerated application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“We are de facto allies. This has already been achieved,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech on Sept. 30. “Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure…Under an accelerated procedure. We understand that this requires the consensus of all members of the alliance.”
That ain’t gonna happen any time soon.
Within two years, Sweden — the formerly neutral Nordic country that’s soon to join NATO — will meet the Western military alliance’s often-debated defence spending target of two per cent of gross domestic product.
The country’s top military commander, Gen. Micael Bydén, told CBC News that Sweden is also restructuring its armed forces to make it more of a “wartime organization” to be ready in case the conflict with Russia escalates.
That’s pretty bad, I hear Sweden’s armed forces are even more woke than Canada’s.
