Ethiopian Review

Defence Minister MacKay warns Russia that Canuck fighter jets will scramble to meet any unauthorized aircraft

Defence Minister Peter MacKay has issued a decidedly cool response to the Russian military’s planned paratrooper drop at the North Pole next spring, suggesting Canadian fighter jets would scramble to “meet” any Russian aircraft “approaching” Canada’s airspace.

“We’re going to protect our sovereign territory,” MacKay said Friday in Halifax, a day after a Russian embassy spokesman tried to downplay the scheduled parachute mission as a “solely symbolic” event aimed at celebrating the 60th anniversary of a Cold War achievement by two Soviet scientists.

“We’re always going to meet any challenge to that territorial sovereignty,” MacKay added, “and I can assure you any country that is approaching Canadian airspace, approaching Canadian territory, will be met by Canadians.”

MacKay’s stern reaction to Russia’s planned paratrooper operation could rekindle tensions between the two countries over Arctic sovereignty. The issue has sparked several verbal clashes in recent years, including a 2007 uproar over a Russian flag-planting on the North Pole seabed and sharp exchanges earlier this year over a Russian bomber mission near Canadian airspace that was intercepted by Canadian fighter jets.

The latest flashpoint emerged as the Canadian government was releasing details of a planned whirlwind tour of the Canadian North later this month by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

He is scheduled to make a five-day trip from one end of Canada’s Arctic to the other, visiting the country’s three territories and visiting each of their capitals.

The planned tour, scheduled for Aug. 17-21, will mark the fourth straight summer Harper has visited the Arctic, part of a diplomatic agenda to assert Canada’s control over the vast, resource-rich region — and a Conservative political strategy to reinvest in the country’s military while portraying the party in a visionary, nation-building light.

Along the way, Harper will hold a cabinet meeting in Iqaluit, pose for photos on a Canadian warship and submarine in Arctic waters, and announce spending and policy initiatives in the Baffin Island hamlet of Pangnirtung, and the western territorial capitals of Yellowknife and Whitehorse.

- By Randy Boswell | Canwest News Service