"[T]he SNMG1, a squadron primarily of destroyers and frigates from Alliance nations, [will enter] the Indian Ocean.
"The warships provide rapid intervention capability for a broad spectrum of NATO operations. However, on this mission they’ll operate outside their usual theatre of operation, which is the Mediterranean Sea and east Atlantic Ocean.
The flotilla included destroyers and frigates from Canada, Portugal, Germany, the United States, Spain and the Netherlands and its commander, Portuguese Rear Admiral Jose Domingos Pereira da Cunha, said of the mission that “We will be operating from the Red Sea to the coast of Australia.” (6)
In addition to NATO's maiden voyage through the strategic Strait of Malacca, the HMCS Winnipeg's itinerary includes a "six-month deployment to the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean." (7)
NATO spokesman James Appathurai announced in March that "NATO governments - ambassadors - have approved the operational plan for the deployment of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia." (8)
In early April the HMCS Winnipeg had wended its way to the Somali coast with the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 where it "ward[ed] off suspected pirates" and "dispatched its Sea King helicopter to check out several skiffs."
"Being able to perform a variety of functions for NATO in the Gulf [of Aden] is satisfying," Commander Craig Baines summarized. (9)
The Canadian military action prefigured and preceded by three days the American commando attack on a vessel off the Somali coast which resulted in the deaths of three men holding an American hostage.
Last year the HMCS Ville de Quebec deployed on Operation SEXTANT, Canada's maritime contribution to the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, "to participate with the NATO fleet in a series of naval exercises to maintain a high degree of readiness capability should SNMG1 be tasked to engage in directed operations" and completed "a very successful mission in the Mediterranean Sea with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and an anti-piracy escort mission in the Indian Ocean...." (10)
A year before that the Canadian HMCS Toronto joined the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 - "an integral part of the NATO Response Force (NRF), a highly ready and technologically advanced force made up of land, air, sea and Special Forces components that can be deployed quickly" - in a five-month deployment to "conduct operations in the Mediterranean and conduct an historic 12,500 nautical mile circumnavigation of Africa."
"It is historic in the sense that it’s the first time the task group is going to circumnavigate Africa," said Cmdr. Stephen Virgin, Toronto’s captain. (11)
When the HMCS Toronto reached Africa's southern tip it and its fellow NATO warships engaged in exercises with the South African navy. "I don’t think it’s been done before, certainly not a combined NATO-South African exercise," Cmdr. Virgin said.
At the same time then Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced that the
Canadian frigate HMCS Toronto and six CF-18 aircraft would be made available to the NATO Response Force until January of 2008.
Earlier in the year Canadian Commodore Denis Rouleau, prefacing his comments with "I speak as a NATO officer," stated, "Canada is at the top of the heap when it comes to contributions to this NATO [maritime] force." (12)
Alleged defense of Canadian sovereignty over the past two years, then, has included dispatching warships to the Mediterranean Sea with NATO's six and a half year long Operation Active Endeavor interdiction efforts, and on other NATO missions to the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the Strait of Malacca, the Indonesia archipelago, the coast of Australia and along the entire perimeter of Africa.
Patrolling the world's seas and oceans, and note that none of the deployments listed above were in the Western Hemisphere, with military vessels provided with artillery and combat helicopters for live engagements in pursuit of commercial and geopolitical objectives is the furthest thing in the world from protecting one's borders and sovereign rights.
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