Obama, Canadian PM talk NATO

President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke on the phone Saturday about the upcoming summit for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The conference is scheduled for next week in Wales among leaders of NATO countries.

{mosads}“Both leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring Alliance unity on measures to strengthen NATO’s readiness and responsiveness to the full range of current and future threats,” the White House said in a statement.

In addition Obama told Harper that increasing defense investment is a “top priority” for him at the summit of the military alliance.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters earlier in the week that the growing threats posed by armed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters is one topic Obama wishes to discuss with leaders of 27 NATO countries.

Earnest said Obama had already started speaking with many of NATO’s members about ISIS before the summit, and some countries had begun supplying Kurdish fighters with weapons to battle ISIS.

Canada’s delegation to NATO mocked Russia this week on Twitter, posting a map to clarify that Ukraine, including the disputed Crimean peninsula, is “not Russia.” Harper has not indicated whether he wants to prioritize the Russia’s involvement with Ukraine at the NATO summit.