OTTAWA — The head of the NATO alliance is set to meet with the prime minister in Ottawa today.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is also slated to give a speech at an event hosted by the NATO Association of Canada this evening.

His last visit to Canada was in August 2022, when he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent time in the Arctic.

That region is the highlight of Canada’s new defence strategy, released earlier this spring, and it’s seen as being of increasing importance to NATO since Sweden and Finland joined the alliance.

NATO leaders are set to meet in Washington, D.C., next month for an annual summit and mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary.

Last year’s summit was heavily focused on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a topic that is also expected to dominate talks this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press