Canada is “clearly on track” to meet NATO’s defense goals in the coming years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, as pressure mounted in Ottawa after the US election.
Speaking to the annual meeting of the NATO Parliament in Montreal on Monday, Trudeau said Canada has so far ensured that its investment in NATO deployments is “as concrete as possible,” but added that more needs to be done.
“We are on a clear path to reach 2 percent in the coming years because we know the world is changing and Canada, along with our partners, must be ready for it,” Trudeau said.
Canada is one of only eight NATO members that does not meet the alliance’s target of spending at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, but has pledged to get there by 2032.
Trudeau said Canada has added $175 billion to its spending target. Canada’s revised defense policy spending will increase from 1.37 percent of GDP currently to 1.76 percent by 2030.
The parliamentary budget chief, however, said Canada’s plan to hit NATO’s defense targets is unclear and the current forecast for increased military spending is based on “flawed” economic assumptions.
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“One of the challenges we’ve always had with two per cent is that it doesn’t matter what you use it for, what matters is that you reach that limit and Canada has never felt that way,” Trudeau said.
“We have made sure that our investment is as strong as possible, and that it contributes to the ability of Canadians to continue to play a leading role in the many different aspects of NATO.”
“We have to do more, and we are doing more, but especially stepping up in the Arctic, stepping up to some of the key challenges that we face is something that all NATO countries can continue to count on in Canada.”
Following Donald Trump’s election victory earlier this month, pressure is mounting for Canada to meet NATO goals as the Republican president-elect has previously warned that the United States may not protect allies that do not meet the alliance agreement agreed to by two percent of them. GDP in defense.
Speaking to Mercedes Stephenson of the Halifax International Security Forum in an interview broadcast on Sunday West BlockRepublican Sen. James Risch of Idaho and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire downplayed concerns that Trump would punish Canada on things like trade if it didn’t increase defense spending.
But Risch suggested Washington is growing impatient with Canada’s progress in meeting the NATO target of spending at least two percent on defence, which Ottawa says it plans to meet eight years from now.
“If Donald Trump was sitting here, you would get him out in 2032, because that is far from what we are facing in the world right now,” he said.
“That is forever for us. This must be done now.”
Over the weekend, anti-NATO and pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Montreal.
About 80 people attended Saturday’s protest against NATO, calling for Canada to withdraw from the alliance, in a downtown area organized by Le Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix. Protesters carried signs reading “Canada out of NATO” and chanted “solidarity with Palestine.”
On Friday, a protest organized by different groups also led to arrests, burning of cars and windows.
Trudeau joined Canadian ministers and politicians in condemning the violence, calling it “absolutely unacceptable.”
“As a democratic country, as a country that will always protect freedom of speech, it is important for people to be able to go out and protest and express their anger, their disagreements in free and open ways, but there has never been a place for opposition. -Semitism, hatred, racism, violence,” he said on Monday.
“We expect all those involved to be prosecuted and punished under the law and we expect the authorities to do their job.”
— via files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and The Canadian Press
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