Canada is prepared to contribute troops to Britain and France’s “coalition of the willing” peacekeeping force should there be a ceasefire in Ukraine, Defence Minister Bill Blair said Wednesday.
He made the remarks at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute annual forum in Ottawa.
Following a weekend meeting of allies in London, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada “was looking at the best ways it can help.” He acknowledged that all options were on the table.
Blair’s remarks on Wednesday went a step further, saying active discussions are underway.
“Canada is ready and able to make a contribution to that force,” Blair told reporters following his speech. “But we also believe that there’s important discussions that need to take place with respect to security guarantees for Ukraine and foreign forces that we’re serving.”
National Defence Minister Bill Blair said Wednesday there are discussions that need to be had about security guarantees for Ukraine and for the forces who would serve there.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spearheaded the initiative which is being put together following the disastrous, televised falling out in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Led by the U.K. and France, the peacekeeping force could see a number of European countries put boots on the ground in eastern Ukraine should there be a ceasefire or peace settlement. The idea would be that the presence of Western troops would deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from re-arming and then attempting to conquer all of Ukraine.
The force, however, would have to be backed with security guarantees, most notably from the Americans. The absence of such guarantees in a mineral resource deal between the U.S. and Ukraine contributed to the public argument between Trump and Zelenskyy.
Starmer has said the U.K., France and Ukraine are working on a peace deal that could be presented to Washington.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance dismissed the effort and said an American stake in Ukraine’s economy was a “better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
The comment sparked outrage in the U.K. and among U.S. Democrats. Among other things, Vance’s remarks ignore the fact that Canadian, British and French forces fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan. Britain also joined the U.S. in the invasion of Iraq.
The “coalition of the willing” approach would allow the countries — all NATO members — to act in a group but not under the Western military alliance’s umbrella. That would get around the political disagreements at NATO where Hungary and Slovakia have both taken pro-Russian positions and created obstacles for allied consensus.
Thus far, Russia has rejected the idea of a peacekeeping force — NATO, European Union or otherwise.
The Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia along with Finland — have expressed quiet interest in joining Britain, France and Canada. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quoted recently as saying he is open to the idea of contributing peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
