Defence Minister Peter MacKay has issued a decidedly cool response to the Russian military's planned paratrooper drop at the North Pole next spring, suggesting Canadian fighter jets would scramble to "meet" any Russian aircraft "approaching" Canada's airspace.

"We're going to protect our sovereign territory," MacKay said Friday in Halifax, a day after a Russian embassy spokesman tried to downplay the scheduled parachute mission as a "solely symbolic" event aimed at celebrating the 60th anniversary of a Cold War achievement by two Soviet scientists.