Anand: Arctic security threats have 'shifted significantly' as geopolitics reshape the far north

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Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Sunday (Sept. 27) that the security threats facing the Canadian Arctic have "shifted significantly" in recent years, amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and an upended geopolitical order. She made the remarks in an interview with Global News' political program The West Block, hosted by Jeff Semple.

Anand said she attended an Arctic nations meeting convened last week by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where participants "had a frank discussion about the collective need to work together on Arctic security." She stressed that "the United States is very much at the table in this conversation," and said she and Rubio are in ongoing dialogue about how Canada and the U.S. can advance their shared Arctic interests through multilateral organizations including NATO. She called on NATO to adopt a strategic assessment of the North and the Arctic "to ensure that we are well defended and protected in terms of the Arctic, not only on the Eastern flank."

Anand also pointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney's defence-spending expansion, including a contract with Germany's TKMS for as many as 12 new submarines, and a still-undecided fighter-jet purchase. She warned of a growing threat to undersea fibre-optic cables in Arctic waters — NATO allies stopped a Russian submarine earlier this year that was training to damage such cables — while a senior Russian official warned that more security in the region could trigger "potentially disastrous consequences." Despite tariff and political tensions, she said, Canada and the United States remain in close coordination on Arctic security and sovereignty.