U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for NATO allies to increase defence spending is an opportunity for Canada to enforce Arctic sovereignty, experts say.

Trump’s comments, which came at the NATO summit in London Tuesday, followed a letter from the U.S. government last month which demanded Canada meet NATO spending targets. Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Richard Fadden said Canada is going to have to spend more money to establish a presence in the Arctic as defence concerns become “increasingly clear.”

“We should be investing more in the Arctic if we’re going to preserve our sovereignty there, not just in defence but in a whole range of governmental activities,” Fadden said.

While NATO countries committed to spending two per cent of their GDP on national defence, Canada only spends around 1.27 per cent, according to according to NATO figures released last June.

Fadden, a Macdonald-Laurier Institute expert, said it’s “entirely reasonable” for Trump, as president of the country which contributes the most to NATO, to ask all allied countries to contribute more if they’re not meeting the 2 per cent requirement. He said there’s a “whole range” of security concerns in the Arctic.

Fadden said China’s been declared a “near-Arctic power” and more ships, including Russian ships, have been headed up north as ice melts. As well, he said Russia’s been spending tens of millions of rubles to refurbish cold-war bases in the Soviet Arctic and there’s been an increasing number of bomber and fighter flights over the region. Fadden said Nordic states in Europe are concerned about China and Russia’s increased presence.

“NATO overall, not just President Trump, is becoming more preoccupied with what Russia is doing in the far North,” he said.

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Elinor Sloan, a professor of international relations at Carleton University, said Russia has been building submarines and icebreakers while increasing activity in the region, while China has been “increasingly interested in Arctic waters.” Sloan said part of the problem is that the Canadian public doesn’t realize the threat and hasn’t been applying pressure on the government to spend more on Arctic infrastructure.

According to Fadden, the Canadian government recognizes the issues in the north but “there’s never enough money to do everything.”

To establish Arctic power, Fadden said Canada needs to improve Arctic communications with satellites, more regularly send up air crafts to be stationed in the Arctic, and exercise some significant military exercises, either alone or with allies.

“Having substantial exercises is a way of signalling that it’s your territory, you’re serious about it,” he said, adding that inviting European and U.S. NATO allies it would make the point “even more directly.”

Sloan said Canada could increase defence spending and upgrade Arctic infrastructure.

She said Canada’s system of arctic surveillance, the North Warning System which uses radars to provide atmospheric air defence of North America, needs to be upgraded or replaced with a satellite system before it becomes obsolete in 2025. Fadden also said Canada’s only large icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, was built in 1969 and will need to be replaced soon while medium icebreakers are also in need of repairs, and Canada’s submarines can’t operate under ice for long periods of time.

The government is planning a polar icebreaker to replace “Canada’s current largest and most capable icebreaker” the Louis S. St-Laurent, but project budget is currently under review and the shipyard is yet to be determined. In August 2019 the feds announced that the Coast Guard is also getting two “arctic patrol ships,” but they are years from completion and have limited icebreaking capability. As well, six new arctic vessels are being built for the Navy. Four are currently being built by Irving and the first ship was to be delivered in 2019, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada.

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