A senior Canadian official said the federal government, beset by persistent criticism from allies over its defense spending, plans to announce a timeline on Thursday for meeting NATO’s military investment standard of 2 percent of allied gross domestic product.
The official, speaking to Canadian journalists on background on Wednesday, gave no specifics, saying only that a timeline would be laid out at the conclusion of a NATO summit currently underway in Washington.
The Liberal government is under increasing pressure internationally, and more recently domestically, to present some kind of plan to allies for increased defense spending.
Defence Minister Bill Blair, speaking at a NATO forum late Wednesday, stopped short of saying Canada would present a full plan to NATO.
“In the next few days, our [NATO] “I ask my colleagues to provide a credible, verifiable path forward for Canada and the investments we need to make.”
In the days before the summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a series of high-level meetings with U.S. business leaders and leading lawmakers from both parties to gauge the depth of American discontent.
A senior Canadian official said Canada’s failure to meet the 2% target has not been raised so far in NATO’s closed-door meetings.
But the topic is also a hot topic among government officials in Washington.
“Canada has announced in the last few days that they are not going to provide any funding,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said unprompted at a Hudson Institute forum this week.
“They are not fulfilling their 2% obligation. Why? They have safety and security on our borders and they don’t have to worry about that. It’s shameful. If they are going to be a member state they have to do their part.”
Prime Minister Johnson did not meet with Prime Minister Trudeau this week.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had heard the prime minister’s remarks and was not convinced.
In a post on X late Tuesday, McConnell said that while shared values and close economic ties are the bedrock of the U.S.-Canada relationship, “it is time for our allies to the north to seriously invest in the hard power needed to keep NATO prosperous and secure across the board.”
Canada currently plans to increase its military spending to 1.76% of GDP.
The Liberal government has asserted that planned military spending, yet to be approved, will push the national budget above 2 percent, but these statements fall short of the clear plans expected by NATO.
And the goalposts may be moving.
In NATO’s official leaders’ declaration released late Wednesday, the 32 leaders of the alliance praised the increase in defense spending across the alliance but suggested even higher standards could be on the way.
“We reaffirm that in a volatile international situation, expenditures exceeding 2 percent of GDP will often be necessary to fill existing shortfalls and meet requirements,” the declaration said.
