OTTAWA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit Canadian troops in Latvia before attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Brussels next week, the Canadian Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday.
Trudeau's visit will mark the first ever bilateral visit to Latvia by a Canadian prime minister.
He will meet Latvia's Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis and President Raimonds Vejonis in Riga, the office said in a release.
Trudeau will then visit the Canadian-led multinational NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup Latvia, which represents Canada's largest sustained military presence in Europe in over a decade.
The visit will be an opportunity for Trudeau to reaffirm Canada's commitment to the NATO alliance and Euro-Atlantic security, the office said.
NATO members will convene on July 11-12 in the Belgian capital of Brussels, with military spending expected to top the agenda.
U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly sent letters to several NATO allies, including Canada, Germany, Belgium, and Norway, demanding them boost spending and threatening to shift the U.S. military presence in Europe if they do not.
In the letter to Trudeau, Trump said there is "growing frustration" in the United States with NATO allies like Canada that have not increased defence spending as promised, according to the media reports.
The letter came as tensions between Canada and the United States are at a dramatic high due to an ongoing dispute over U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that have prompted Canada and other European countries to impose politically targeted retaliatory tariffs.
