Wales, United Kingdom
4 September 2014
Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and its military aggression in eastern Ukraine are undermining the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. NATO partners in the Baltic States are concerned by the Putin regime’s militarism which is destabilizing security in the region.
To address these challenges, Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Canada will be providing support for two initiatives that will help Ukraine as well as NATO allies counter the threat posed by Russian militarism.
Both initiatives will be funded through the Global Peace and Security Fund (GPSF), which supports stabilization and reconstruction initiatives in fragile and conflict–affected countries. The Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) administers programming funded by the GPSF.
At the request of Ukraine, NATO is in the process of creating several Trust Funds in support of Ukrainian efforts to modernize its armed forces. Canada is providing $1 million towards these efforts. Canada’s contribution to the Trust Funds will be focused on helping Ukraine build up its Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4) capabilities. Canada will also look at assisting in improving personnel management systems within the Armed Forces; providing advisory and technical support to Ukraine’s efforts to reform its logistics systems (IT, structures, and processes); and implementing NATO standards throughout the Armed Forces.
Security and stability in Ukraine would be promoted by building the capacity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to better address current and future security challenges and internal violence.
Canadian provision of support to the Trust Funds would be coordinated with key allies to respond to requests from the Government of Ukraine. The Trust Funds will be managed by international NATO staff, in close cooperation with the NATO liaison office in Ukraine and contributing donors.
This initiative will increase the capacity of NATO Centres of Excellence in the Baltic States, which are located in the periphery of the Russian Federation, to better address regional security challenges and concerns related to cyber defence, energy security and strategic communications. The three NATO Centres of Excellence in the Baltic States – Cooperative Cyber Defence, Energy Security and Strategic Communications – will each receive support valued at up to $1 million (a total of $3 million) from the Government of Canada to help strengthen the regional framework for addressing the crisis situation.
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is located in Tallinn, Estonia and its mission is to foster cooperation, capabilities and information sharing between NATO countries regarding cyber security; the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence is located in Vilnius, Lithuania and its mission is to support NATO’s capability development process, mission effectiveness, and interoperability in the near–, mid– and long–terms by providing comprehensive and timely subject matter expertise on all aspects of energy security; and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is located in Riga, Latvia and was established to contribute towards improved strategic communications capabilities of the Alliance and the Allied Nations.
This initiative will see the deployments of experts and/or personnel to NATO Centres of Excellence as well as the provision of financial resources for specialized programming designed to improve cyber defence, energy security and strategic communications in the Baltic Region.
