President Donald Trump’s growing alignment with Russia is now raising serious concerns among Canadian security experts. They warn that even if Canada builds closer ties to Europe, it may still not fully protect Canada from an increasingly erratic United States.
According to CBC News from the neighbors to the north, Trump has made several recent moves in support of Moscow: Secretary of State Marco Rubio invited Vladimir Putin to December’s G20 summit at Trump's resort in Miami. Trump then decided to abandon sanctions against Russia to send it $4 billion for diesel fuel.
Meanwhile, restrictions on aid are popping up in Ukraine. Trump pal Elon Musk has recently become a close friend of Putin and has put his thumb on the scale, slowing down Starlink for Ukraine. The Pentagon's watchdog announced it won't investigate Musk. A new Congress, however, is expected to. It has also been difficult for Ukraine to get more Patriot missiles.
"This is not Trump playing footsie with Putin," said national security and intelligence adviser Vincent Rigby, former adviser to the prime minister until 2021. "This is something far, far more serious, and strategically, this can't help but be a concern."
McGill University Russia expert Maria Popova similarly said Trump’s approach appears to be shifting from neutrality toward an open alliance with Putin again.
"We have to start thinking about where this trajectory ends up eventually," she said. "And it ends in the U.S. directly helping Russia's war effort."
Rigby agreed, saying that Trump and Putin's restored relationship raises new fears about Arctic sovereignty. In fact, he cautioned that it "could be the end of NORAD in a worst-case scenario." NORAD is the joint U.S. and Canada partnership that surveils the airspace of both countries and helps protect referring to the joint Canada-U.S. partnership to protect sovereign airspace.
Now there's the additional concern about Putin and Trump meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the November APEC summit.
Experts have cautioned against normalizing a world divided by three men; such discussions could normalize a world split into American, Russian and Chinese spheres of influence, leaving smaller countries vulnerable to decisions made without their participation.
Canada is responding by strengthening its international partnerships, increasing defense capabilities and trying to preserve functioning institutions with Washington, the report described. Experts are seeing the value in building closer European cooperation when it comes to things like defense manufacturing, technology, financial infrastructure and satellite systems. It would help Canada be less dependent on the U.S. for networks and communications systems, given Elon Musk is so closely aligned with Musk and Trump.
Trump's pro-Russia push may not last much longer, with a Democratic House expected. Trump also has only 26 months left.
However, Rigby told CBC that he expects those next 26 months to be tumultuous ones.
"You are potentially going to see a president after next week being even more reckless, less restrained and more aggressive," he said.
