Article content continued

Speaking later at the White House, after Trudeau’s press conference, Trump said that anyone who doesn’t like the United States should simply leave the country.

I encourage you to redouble your efforts

Asked about the tweets, Trudeau said Canadians and people around the world “know exactly what I think about those particular comments.

“That is not how we do things in Canada. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, and the diversity of our country is actually one of our greatest strengths and a source of tremendous resilience and pride for Canadians and we will continue to defend that.”

Canada’s mission in Latvia is one of several in NATO countries that have borders with Russia, part of a show of force to discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin from threatening other countries in Europe’s east.

The increased NATO presence is a result of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and its fomenting of Kremlin-backed Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions. Ukraine is not a NATO member.

That may make Canada a target for Russian interference in this fall’s federal election. Stoltenberg said NATO allies share information on cyber threats after seeing multiple attempts to mettle in the democratic process. Trudeau said Canada has had talks with allies in the Baltic states that have faced “significant amounts” of interference to learn what “they’ve done to counter foreign propaganda.”

Canada also leads the NATO training mission for Iraqi forces in that country. There are heightened tensions in that region because of the escalating dispute between the U.S. and neighbouring Iran.

After the visit to CFB Petawawa, Stoltenberg is scheduled to travel to Toronto for a speech and question-and-answer session at the University of Toronto.

The visit started a week of transatlantic diplomacy for Trudeau, who will welcome European Union leaders to a summit in Montreal on Wednesday.