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Canadian PM leaves for NATO summit in Poland

Xinhua, July 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will leave here for Poland Thursday to attend a two-day meeting of NATO heads of state and government in Warsaw, according to the Canadian Prime Minister Office Thursday.

It will be the Canadian prime minister's first attendance to NATO summit after he came to power last November.

A statement released by the Canadian Prime Minister's Office said Trudeau will travel to the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to remember the "six million Jews and the millions of other victims who were brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust."

The summit is to begin Friday. Trudeau will be greeted by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke highly of Canada for agreeing to join Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States in leading a 4,000-strong NATO force in Eastern Europe.

The Canadian agreement came after significant pressure from NATO leaders, including Stoltenberg and U.S. President Barack Obama, who called on Canada during his speech to Parliament on June 29 to do more for the alliance.

At the forthcoming summit, Trudeau is expected to announce that hundreds of Canadian troops will be deployed to Latvia, where they will make up the majority of a 1,000-strong battalion that will also include forces from other NATO members. Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. will lead similar units in Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.

It will be the largest Canadian military deployment in Europe since the World War II. It is also an indication of the country's strong and enduring support for NATO.

Trudeau is also expected to face pointed questions about Canada's defence spending, which was less than one percent of gross domestic product last year. The NATO target is two percent, and even with a slight increase this year.

After the Warsaw meeting, Trudeau will make his first official visit to Ukraine Sunday. Enditem