The time for foreign invasions is impossible to end, former diplomats say the defense conference

At the beginning of the First World War, the esteemed British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Gray, noticed that the lamps were coming out throughout Europe and “we will not see it again in our lives.”

A long time ago, the light, informal metaphor for what was at the time was the longest group of peace and prosperity on the continent.

The novel of that story has become common since the invasion of Ukraine.

It was difficult not to think about the matter this week when listening to both the former Secretary -General of NATO and the man who was the Foreign Minister in Lithuania, where each of them delivered stark reviews of the place where the world is going and how it reached here.

Neither Lord George Robertson, who led the Western Military Alliance from 1999 to 2003, nor Gabrious Landsberses, the best diplomat in Baltic for years, argued that we are on the threshold of war.

Instead, both of them called for a clear deterrence as they delivered separate, realistic messages at the Canadian Defense and Security Industries Association for defense defense contractors in Ottawa, known as Cansec.

So still.

Robertson told the conference that the post -Cold War era was that countries had not worried about their sovereignty and regional defense.

“This world has evaporated, and it will not even return at the age of our children,” he said.

Robertson said that Article 5 of NATO – the mass defense pledged and that the attack on one of them was an attack on everyone – gets all attention. But he said that the third article of the Washington Treaty, which was established in 1949, will receive more attention in the coming months and years.

This item says that the members must have the individual and collective ability to resist an armed attack.

Robertson said: “In other words, there is an obligation to defend your country, a commitment, often in the past, we ignored, as we looked at the (terrorist) enemy abroad,” Robertson said.

“There is no longer room to work as usual.”

He said that it was so for more than a decade, after the Russian guarantee of the Crimea.

Robertson said: “As we see every day in eastern Ukraine, the threat of naked aggression and brutal violence in the European Atlantic region – is no longer theoretically, and it is no longer just a distant possibility,” Robertson said.

“He is real. He is brutal and he is very close to us.”

The challenge today for countries, including Canada, is to stop the belief that some things, such as invasions, are impossible.

“We need to be alert and wake up on a large scale.” But he added that he encouraged a vision of promises to do more Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

Consider Canada to sign soon A major plan worth $ 1.25 trillion for the European Union-Industry Known as Reld Europe.

Landsberses was strongly criticizing European leaders, who says he was hitting the nap button to defend since the 2008 Russian invasion of neighboring Georgia.

His reaction can be summarized to the Plan of infiltration in Europe in two words: for time.

“We finally started to see our leaders talk about dangerous money,” said Landsberses. “The European infiltration plan may be the first step in the right direction.”

Landsburgis said that Europe simply allowed the crisis to build after the inclusion of Russian Crimea, rather than decisive action. It was a lost contract.

“During that time, the Europeans said all the right things, but unfortunately a little preparation,” Landsberses said.

“After the invasion of 2022 (Ukraine), there was hope that the situation would change significantly and that European factories would start putting tanks, anonymity and ammunition. This happened, but not to the extent that one was hoping.”

NATO is doing its best to put matters in the context, saying over the past decade, the European and Canada allies have increased steadily from their collective investments in defense – from 1.43 percent of GDP in 2014, to 2.02 percent in 2024.

However, the criticism of Landsburgis was not limited to the political establishment. He said that the defense contractors and the world of companies were equally stuck in the idea of ​​work as usual.

He said, “Every conversation I had with the representatives of the defense industry during the war years will end with the phrase:” I do not build anything until you see the money. “

“This was the essence of the problem. Europe will speak well, but it spends business leaders, Putin or any good person in mathematics through it.”

Landsburgis said that the lack of urgency was evident in the battle or death of Ukraine to hold the line from the advanced Russian army.

He said that the armament of Ukraine in seizures and beginnings was painful to see life, as one of the litigants who understood life under the Russian occupation, was painful to see it.

“When another child’s step is taken, I must show gratitude and whisper to myself,” be better late, “said Landsburgis.

“When another weapon is donated late with insufficient ammunition and orders not to use it a lot against Russia, I must have myself,” this is enough. “