The Royal Canadian Navy now finds itself in the unusual position of both shadowing Russian warships as a threat in the Caribbean and sharing an anchorage with them as a guest in the port of Havana — because Canada accepted an invitation to send a patrol ship to Cuba while the Russian navy is in town.

And it’s not clear just who in government or the military knew about the invitation from Cuba. The Caribbean nation has been a full-throated supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and Cubans have been fighting alongside Russian soldiers in that country.

A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence (DND) told CBC News on Friday that the department was aware the Russians would be in Havana port on the same days as the Canadians.

But when asked about the visit on CBC’s Power and Politics on Thursday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told host David Cochrane she knew nothing about it.

  • tal@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    One also notes that the Canadian warship (the HMCS Margaret Brooke, apparently) is not traveling in the company of an ocean-going tug to address the possibility that it breaks down and has to be towed back.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      On top of that, Canada is not exactly the naval power of the U.S. or Britain or France or even Australia, but they’re still clearly not especially intimidated by the so-called powerful Russian navy.