Canada joins NATO war game in Latvia

Canada is participating in NATO's Steadfast Javelin II war game in Latvia as part of the country's Operation Reassurance to ease eastern European countries' "anxiety over security," the Canadian Department of National Defense said Tuesday.

According to the department, the Operation Reassurance refers to military activities conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces to support NATO reassurance measures including army training, exercises, demonstrations and assigned alliance tasks.

During the war game, Canadian soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment will conduct a parachute jump together with about 200 paratroopers from Italy.

Steadfast Javelin II is a multinational exercise going on from Tuesday to Sept.8 in five European countries -- Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, designed to develop and enhance their interoperability, readiness, joint operation capabilities and multinational responses to potential crises. More than 2,000 allied army soldiers are taking part in the exercise.

The United States is also a participant country. More NATO exercises are already planned for the coming months, including in Ukraine.