Carney extends Canadian military mission in Latvia to 2029

Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that Canada will keep troops in Latvia through to 2029, as part of a mission to deter Russian aggression in Europe that has given Ottawa an outsized role in the transatlantic alliance.

"We must deter and fortify, and that is the way that we can provide true reassurance," Carney said Tuesday at a news conference in Riga, flanked by Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina.

Carney's office said there are now 2,000 Canadian Armed Forces troops in Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, which is Canada's largest overseas mission.

Canadian troops have been there since 2017 to strengthen the defence of Europe's eastern flank and to deter Russia from invading Baltic countries, through what many call a "trip wire."

The current authority for the mission ends in March 2026, but Carney said he plans to extend that by another three years.

"We will in the process increase the brigade's capabilities here in Latvia, reinforce our collective defence, strengthen our co-operative security and keep the NATO presence strong," Carney said.

Canada is co-ordinating the role of soldiers from roughly 10 countries in Latvia, to shore up the country's defences and to train Latvian soldiers, according to Carleton University professor Stephen Saideman.

"We're punching above our weight," he said in an interview. "We're basically being treated by the rest of NATO as equal to the U.K. and Germany," who are co-ordinating similar multinational brigades in Estonia and Lithuania respectively.

Ottawa aims to have a full cadre of 2,200 persistently deployed Canadian troops in Latvia sometime in 2026, and has been building new infrastructure at the Adazi base near Riga in the past two years to make up for overcrowding.

Canada occasionally has the full presence of 2,200 troops on site for specific exercises, Saideman said.

He said Carney's visit is likely meant "to help educate Canadians about this major commitment" and to put a face on the boost to defence spending that is coming at the expense of other services for Canadians.

"He might be going there to show to Canada where the money is going, and why the money is necessary," he said.

Saideman added that the mission is particularly complex as France would have likely led it, but Canada is instead running it with smaller contingents from many countries, which requires more work to co-ordinate.

"We are doing a whole lot that doesn't necessarily get recognized back in Canada," he said.

The mission started after Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, and has taken on increased importance since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier Tuesday, Carney said in Berlin that Russian President Vladimir Putin is afraid to sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after U.S. President Donald Trump said the two should talk directly about how to end the war.

"We see President Putin putting conditions and conditions, and stalling and stalling, and being afraid of having this meeting," Carney said.

Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said Canada's mission in Latvia is a major contribution.

"It's probably one of the most important international missions that we've been engaged in since the liberation of the Netherlands in World War II," he said.

"It allows them to go on living their lives normally, even though that threat is right at their doorstep," he said, adding this applies to Latvians as well as neighbouring Estonians and Lithuanians.

"It demonstrates that Canada is active, and it won't be pushed around by Vladimir Putin," he said.

Global Affairs Canada's profile on Latvia says both countries "share a close relationship grounded in shared fundamental values, such as support for democracy, human rights and the rules-based international order."

Latvia has deep scars over violence meted out on the population both during the Nazi occupation and during Latvia's time as part of the Soviet Union.