Canada expects to extend its protection spending to the NATO goal of two% of gross home product by 2032, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned on Thursday, in Ottawa’s first timeline dedication to satisfy the goal amid mounting strain from the USA and different allies.
“Canada totally expects to achieve NATO’s 2% of GDP spending goal by 2032,” Trudeau informed reporters in Washington, the place he’s attending a summit of NATO leaders.
Ottawa has been below strain from Washington to spice up protection spending. In Might, US senators wrote to Trudeau, urging him to extend protection spending to the NATO goal.
Canada at the moment spends about 1.4% of GDP on protection and, in a protection coverage replace in April, introduced plans to lift navy expenditure to 1.76% of GDP by 2030.
“We’ve in-built an everyday cycle of evaluate in Canada’s protection, together with a brand new protection coverage replace in 2028. By means of that course of, we’ll proceed to discover alternatives that may additional improve protection spending,” he mentioned.
The protection ministry mentioned Canada will spend money on “the correct mix of those further capabilities” outlined within the April coverage replace to achieve the two% goal by 2032.