On 20 November 2017, the Baltic Defence College hold a seminar titled ‘Western Powers and Baltic Cooperation – the Key to Credible Defence, Canada’ which was a part of Elective related to military security of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and beyond. The seminar was organized by the College faculty and students of the Joint Command and General Staff Course 2017/2018 and Civil Servants Course 2017, who provided their findings related to Canada role in the regional security setup.      

The seminar was supported by presence of distinguished speakers – Commander of Canadian Task Force Latvia Col Josh Major, Professor Christian Leuprecht from Royal Military College of Canada and Mr Hasit Thankey, the Political Adviser of the Commander Canadian Task Force Latvia. The speakers provided their insights within the topics clarifying both political and military involvement into regional security explaining reasons behind such the decision. It was followed by questions and discussion related to Canada’s military posture and strategic presence in the Baltic Region and its influence on the security situation. Role, capabilities and limitations of Canadian Battalion Task Group in Latvia were also openly covered.

Canada is currently framework nation for Task Force located in Latvian within NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence initiative to enhance deterrence posture toward external threats.