Why Canada Has Been Training Ukraine’s Military Since 2014

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Can I ask you? You have somewhere in the region of just over a million Ukrainians living in Canada…

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Indeed.

AMANPOUR: … Ukrainian Canadians. How much does that impact your government’s policy on Ukraine and on this crisis in particular?

JOLY: Well, I think, obviously, it has an impact, in the sense that it has — we have strong people-to-people tie with Ukraine. We are close to the Ukrainian government. We understand their perspective. We have been training their military and National Guard since 2014. So, our own Canadian Armed Forces have been on the ground helping Ukrainians professionalize their approach when it comes to their own military response. And of course, it gives us a perspective to what is happening in the region for sure.

AMANPOUR: So, you’ve been training since 2014, your troops and NATO troops, let’s just be quite clear. What is your view on President Zelenskyy said yesterday? You know, on the one hand, we need to be part of NATO, we’re not giving up on this dream. On the other hand, to me, he said, well, it might not be tomorrow or the next year, of whatever, but just give us a timeline. What is your view on that or your government’s view on them joining NATO, and what should be said about it, if anything, now?

JOLY: Well, we — our position has been clear, and we haven’t changed it, which is since 2008, we’ve been in favor of Ukraine joining NATO. And so — but at the same time, we know and President Biden even mentioned it, that there’s no consensus within NATO. So —

AMANPOUR: And they’re not ready?

JOLY: And that’s one of the reasons why, Christiane, that we were involved in making sure to train the military, because we know there are still reforms to be made on the democratic side, but also on the military side in order for them to be ready one day to join NATO.

AMANPOUR: And would it be too much of a stretch to say that NATO does not want Ukraine in there right now, while they’re not militarily ready, and that it could trigger an Article 5 response, and they do not want to go in to face Russian forces.

JOLY: Well, you know, different countries have different opinions. We are in favor, and we think that it is important for Ukraine’s stability, security. But at the same time, in order for them to get at a level of readiness, we need to do our part. And that’s why we’ve been doing that on the military side, like I mentioned, in our operation unifier, which is the operation that we’ve been conducting since 2014. We have Denmark and Sweden that are part of that exercise. But meanwhile, we know right now that this is a very difficult situation. The threat is real and imminent. And so, we’re also providing financial aid. We’ve provided, at this point, around $620 million in financial support for Ukraine.