Congressional budget officials say defense spending will need to nearly double to $81.9 billion if the federal government wants to meet NATO military spending targets by 2032 as promised.
In a report released Wednesday, the budget watchdog outlined its conclusions on the fiscal implications of meeting NATO’s goal for member countries to spend 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence. presented.
All 32 NATO allies have agreed to spend at least that amount on defense, but Canada is one of the only countries that has not presented a plan to achieve the goal. Twenty-three members have already reached their goals or said they will reach them by the end of this year.
At the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., in June, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that Canada would meet its spending goals by 2032.
Trudeau has come under increasing pressure from allies, especially U.S. politicians, and the summit comes a year after NATO leaders agreed to a minimum spending target of 2%. pressure to present a plan.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump has said in the past that if he were to return to the White House, the United States would not provide protection to underperforming NATO allies. Mutual protection is a core tenet of the Alliance.
Prime Minister Trudeau did not provide details on where or how spending would increase. The People’s Bank of China said on Wednesday that the government had not yet released figures detailing how to reach the target.
Canada’s latest defense policy, released in April, estimates that overall defense spending will increase to 1.76% of GDP by the end of 2010.
However, the PBO said the forecast was based on incorrect economic growth forecasts that assumed the country would be in a four-year recession.
The report states that “projections recalculated using GDP statistics from the People’s Bank of China, which are broadly consistent with the Ministry of Finance and other independent sources, show that defense spending will reach just 1.58% of GDP by 2029-30.” “This is expected to increase from 1.35% in 2029-30.” From 2024 to 2025.
The federal government is expected to spend $41 billion on national defense this fiscal year, according to the report.