Last updated at: (Beijing
Time) Thursday, August 29, 2002
US, Canada Developing Anti-terror Border
Plan
The Canadian
government is about to sign a deal with the United States that would
allow American soldiers to operate on Canadian soil in event of a
terrorist attack, it is reported in Ottawa Wednesday.
The Canadian
government is about tosign a deal with the United
States that would allow American soldiers to operate on Canadian
soil in event of a terrorist attack, it is reported in Ottawa
Wednesday.
The Globe and Mail reported that the proposal, unveiled by Defense
Minister John McCallum on Tuesday, would also allow Canadian troops to
take part in anti-terror operations in the US.
Under the plan, US and Canadian troops would for the first timebe
allowed to serve under the command of each other's forces in North
America, under strict guidelines and on a case by case basis.
The joint force would be used to protect the North American Perimeter.
"What we are proposing is a planning group that would set up protocols
whereby we could have, conceivably, U.S. troops moving across the
border or Canadian troops moving across their border, but only on a
case-by-case basis with the approval of eachgovernment," McCallum told
The Globe.
"In no way does this reduce Canadian sovereignty, because this is a
planning group that will have no control over troops," he said.
McCallum added that any deal between Canada and the U.S. would build on existing
collaborations between each nation's air force and would include land
and sea troops.
After September 11 attacks, the United States created Northcom,a unit
responsible for overseeing the U.S. military response to security
threats across North American.
Canada had been encouraged to join Northcom, but on Tuesday McCallum
told the Globe that it would be impossible to do so because its
structure involves only the deployment of American troops.
"Our bottom line is that we are a sovereign nation and we are going to
stay a sovereign nation. We don't want to integrate, we don't want our
soldiers to be under command of the Americans," McCallum said.
McCallum said that Ottawa prefers to create a planning group that will
co-ordinate efforts to prevent terrorism in North America which could
also react to terrorist attacks.
The defense minister said once a final agreement was reached between
the two countries it would be forwarded to cabinet for approval.
