NEWS RELEASE

Canadian Parliamentarians attend the Annual Spring Meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) Standing Committee, and discuss recommendations for the upcoming 2023 NATO Summit to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania

From 25 to 26 March 2023, Julie Dzerowicz, MP, Chair of the Canadian NATO PA, and Cheryl Gallant, MP participated in the 2023 Annual Spring Meeting of the NATO PA’s Standing Committee. This meeting was held in Oslo, Norway, and was attended by approximately 40 legislators from the 30 NATO countries and Sweden.

“The Canadian delegation was proud to attend the Spring Meeting of the Standing Committee in Oslo,” remarked Ms. Dzerowicz. “This meeting provided us with the opportunity to have an insightful and productive debate, with our counterparts from other NATO PA countries, on a number of defence and security topics that are of importance to the Alliance.”

Some of the topics that were discussed at the Standing Committee meeting, included:

• China’s increased military cooperation with Russia;
• Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration and NATO’s support for that country;
• NATO countries’ defence spending and their commitment to meet the 2% of gross domestic product spending guideline;
• the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO;
• defence and security challenges associated with the High North; and
• the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda;
• NATO’s response to new and emerging security and defence challenges.

Concerning the war in Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Chairperson of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament), and Yehor Cherniev, Head of the Ukrainian-NATO PA delegation, addressed the participating delegates virtually, highlighting the security situation in, and needs of, Ukraine. Commenting on that issue, NATO PA President Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam underlined that the parliaments of NATO countries “continue to play their part in mobilising support [for Ukraine].” For his part, in an in-person address to the Standing Committee, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre described the war in Ukraine as a “watershed moment” with profound global implications.

An important task in Oslo was the first discussion of the NATO PA’s recommendations for the next Summit of NATO leaders, which will be held on 11-12 July 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The revised recommendations will be discussed again and voted on at the 2023 NATO PA Spring Session in Luxembourg.

In addition to the work of the Standing Committee, the Canadian delegates met with Canada’s Ambassador to Norway, Deirdre Kent, to better understand Norwegian perspectives on defence and security issues, as well as Canada-Norway bilateral relations.

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For further information:
Brett Hartley, Parliamentary Assistant to Julie Dzerowicz, MP
Chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association
613-992-2576

Céline Ethier Association
Secretary Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association
CANA@parl.gc.ca